Sooo Many Questions!

Cheeky_gal

So I was in the gym today and must have done the biggest workout in my life. I used every cardio machine in the place. Overall, spending approx 3 hours there. And yes, before people ask, I made sure it was a challenge and intense. When I came home this evening my mum had made maccaroni. Had a bowl of this with a chicken fillet. My question is, have I just defeated the whole purpose of my workout by coming home to have a bowl of pasta and lots of cheese??? I'm so dissappointed and frustrated in myself now!

I've another question, if I workout in the afternoon after lunch, when I go to have dinner which contains carbs...what happens? What I mean is, I'm not going to have another workout after dinner so where does all the kcals go? Do I put on weight and once again by doing that have I completely defeated the purpose of the workout?

Also heres my diet, I'd be very grateful if someone could comment as to whether its good or not (for weight loss).

Breakfast
Fruit Smoothie

Snack
Piece of fruit

Lunch
Chicken, lettuce, tomato wrap
Coffee

Dinner
Whatevers going, I'm trying to have a salad with chicken

And 40 mins cardio on top of this every day and lots and lots of water.

Cheers!

BraziliaNZ

3 hours cardio is probably pretty pointless, unless you're training for a marathon or something... Your diet looks like you're consuming about 1200 calories a day, which is pretty extreme in my books. You're not really ingesting anything decent until lunchtime really, how about some oats for breakfast? Fruit smoothie is really just a glorified glass of OJ, not really food.
Plus, if you ever think doing a lot of exercise then eating or drinking a lot is pointless, wouldn't it be worse not to do the exercise and then you'd probably eat or drink a lot anyway?

Hanley

No you haven't sabotaged your workout.

After spending 3 hours in the gym you were probably running on empty as regards to glycogen stores (your bodies main fuel source). So when you had the big feed up afterwards it probably all went into refuelling your energy stores and into repairing and rebuilding any of the muscle tissue that was broken down during the day.

That's why the post workout meal is so important. It replenishes (sp) your energy stores and kick starts the recovery process.

So no, you're not wasting your time by eating afterwards. In fact it's probably the most important time to make sure you're getting a good feed up.

Boru.

Hi Cheeky,

I commend you on your dedication, making that effort for 3 hours in one session is admirable and I respect that, as I do the intention behind it. With that said it's probably the only part of the program you posted I like. The truth is what you are doing is not only non beneficial, it's not even healthy and will most likely cause you to gain fat and undermine your immune system and will power.

I don't say this to offend or upset you, as I said you've got great determination and fire - but in my opinion it can spent in much better ways that will get you to your goals faster without burning you out and giving up your life.

Let's look at the cardio first. I've contributed to a number of the threads you posted on and if I recall correctly you said you wanted to be a personal trainer. The key to being an effective trainer is being able to use the basics to achieve results and that's what I recommend here - nothing flashy, not super exciting just the basics.

So what are the basics?

Well if it's in terms of weight loss then you NEED to start lifting weights - this is an exert form an earlier thread I posted in but it applies to you as well

In order to burn 1 lb pf fat you need to use 3500 kcals. If you were to do that using moderate aerobics (like the three hours spent in the gym on every cadrio machine - just to quickly point out it couldn't have been very intense - your body physiologically can not maintain maximum intensity for sustained periods of times like the 3 hours above, anyways back to the point) like a treadmill, bike etc, you'd need to spend about 11 hours a week doing that.

However if you start lifting weights, and not silly light weights either, you can lift pretty heavy, you will develop strong hard and firm (read not huge) lean muscle tissue. This will increase the number of calories you burn by just walking around or lying in bed doing nothing. Not only that it will enhance your physique and define and firm key trouble areas. But here's the really cool part - if over the next year, you added just 10lbs of lean muscle you would burn off on average an extra 1000kcals a day - that's 7,000 kcals for doing nothing. Which would be the equivalent of 2lbs of fat a week - that's not even exercising that's just to keep you the way you are.

So start lifting weights and doing less cardio. Cardio should only be for around 10-15 mins at most and I recommend High Intensity Interval Training - this encourages your body to store sugar as opposed to fat and really speeds up weight loss.

Finally, and most importantly the VERY BEST thing you can do to reduce excess fat is at the kitchen table not the gym. Read the stickies - find out how many calories you should be taking in a day and then cut that number by 15-20%. This creates a calorie deficit, e.g. you are taking in less kcals then you need, so your body starts to burn it's reserve food supply - your fat!

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Cardio

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Here's 2 basic HIIT training program's I use with my clients neither of which require a gym but can easily be implemented on treadmill, bets of all their doe in 15 minutes -

Outdoor Running: Distance Based Program

You can start your first exertion period by running an eighth of a mile (220 yards). Your intensity level should be low to moderate. After each recovery period, increase the intensity. By the time you reach your 6th exertion period, you should be sprinting all out.

Warm-up Exertion Recovery Exertion Recovery Exertion
2 min 1/8 mile 3 min 1/8 mile 3 min 100 yards

Recovery Exertion Recovery Exertion Recovery Exertion
3 min 100 yards 3 min 50 yards 3 min 50 yards

Recovery
3 min

Outdoor Running: Timed Exertion Periods

Like the distance program, start at a low to moderate intensity and increase the level of difficulty slightly after each recovery period. When you’re running outdoors, you have an additional option beyond running faster for raising intensity - running uphill. Your local area and terrain will determine which will work best.

Quick note on Treadmills - I’m not a fan of treadmills but if you can’t get outside an indoors treadmill is a reasonable second choice. You can raise intensity via speed or incline at the touch of a button. You also have the option of holding on to the side rails if you feel winded – which in your case is probably very useful Wink

Warm-up Exertion Recovery Exertion Recovery Exertion
1 min 2 min 2 min 90 sec 2 min 60 sec

Recovery Exertion Recovery Exertion Recovery Exertion
2 min 45 sec 2 min 30 sec 2 min 20 sec

Recovery
1 min

That's all the cardio you have to do. Try it 3 times a week. If you've stuck with that 4 two weeks come back to me and I'll update the program for you.

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Weight Training

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Now, let's look at weight training....have a qualified instructor teach you how to do a Bench Press, Deadlift and Squat - just learn those 3 exercises. DON'T learn them off the net - get a real person to teach you. That's it. Spend 2 weeks at least learning them. Then when you are confident in the movements follow this program.

Here you go 3 days a week follow the following program....

Monday (50% OF 10 Rep Max x5, 75% of your 10 Rep Max x 5, 100% of your 10RM x5) do this series as many times as possible.

Wednesday (50% OF 10 Rep Max x5) for the total number of series you did on Monday

Friday (50% OF 10 Rep Max x5, 75% of your 10 Rep Max) for the total number of series you did on Monday

Rest for 1 minute between each set (50, 75, 100) and 3 minutes between each series.

When you can do 5 series in good form on Monday add 2.5lbs to the bench, 5lbs to the deadlift and 5lbs to the squat.

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Diet -

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Most importantly the VERY BEST thing you can do to reduce excess fat is at the kitchen table not the gym. Read the stickies - find out how many calories you should be taking in a day and then cut that number by 15-20%. This creates a calorie deficit, e.g. you are taking in less kcals then you need, so your body starts to burn it's reserve food supply - your fat!

Keep your calories like this for two weeks. If you don't lose between 1 and 2lbs of fat a week, then reduce your kcals by another 100 a day. Repeat this until your are losing 1-2lbs steadily each week. If you lose more than 2lbs increase you kcals by 100 a day.

Obviously make healthy food choices such as veg and lean meats over junk food's and water over any other drinks.

Now - the diet you have outlined above is awful. However I know from previous posts that you aren't a fan of reducing carbs and increasing protein. Unfortunately you won't get the best results possible unless you change this attitude. However you will still get results.

Once again read the stickies.

And follow the 10 Golden Rules of Dr. John Berardi

1) Eat every 2-3 hours - no matter what.

Are you doing this – no matter what? Now, you don’t need to eat a full meal every 2-3 hours but you do need to eat 6-8 meals and snacks that conform to the other rules below.

2) Ingest complete, lean protein each time you eat.

Are you eating something this is an animal or comes from an animal – every time you feed yourself? If not, make the change. Note: If you’re a vegetarian, this rule still applies.

3) Ingest vegetables every time you eat.

That’s right, every time you eat (every 2-3 hours, right), in addition to a complete, lean protein source, you need to eat some vegetables. You can toss in a piece of fruit here and there as well. But don’t skip the veggies.

4) If want to eat a carbohydrate that’s not a fruit or a vegetable (this includes things like things rice, pasta, potatoes, quinoa, etc), you can – but you’ll need to save it until after you’ve exercised.

Although these grains are dietary staples in North America, heart disease, diabetes and cancer are North American medical staples – there’s a relationship between the two! To stop heading down the heart disease highway, reward yourself for a good workout with a good carbohydrate meal right after (your body best tolerates these carbohydrates after exercise). For the rest of the day, eat your lean protein and a delicious selection of fruits and veggies.

5) A good percentage of your diet (25-35%) must come from fat. Just be sure it’s the right kind.

There are 3 types of fat – saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. Eating all three kinds in a healthy balance can dramatically improve your health and even help you lose fat.

Your saturated fat should come from your animal products and you can even toss in some butter or coconut oil for cooking. Your monounsaturated fat should come from mixed nuts, olives, and olive oil. And your polyunsaturated fat should from flaxseed oil, fish oil, and mixed nuts.

6) Ditch the calorie containing drinks (including fruit juice).

In fact, all of your drinks should come from non-calorie containing beverages. Fruit juice, alcoholic drinks, and sodas – these are all to be removed from your daily fare. Your absolute best choices are water and green tea.

7) Focus on whole foods.

Most of your dietary intake should come from whole foods. There are a few times where supplement drinks and shakes are useful (we’ll discuss them later in the book). But most of the time, you’ll do best with whole, largely unprocessed foods.

8) Have 10% foods.

I know you cringed at a few of the rules above – perhaps #6 in particular. But here’s a bit of a reprieve. 10% foods are foods that don’t necessarily follow the rules above – but food’s you’re still allowed to eat (or drink) 10% of the time.

100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference, in results, between 90% adherence to your nutrition program and 100% adherence is negligible.

Just make sure you do the math and determine what 10% of the time really means. For example, if you’re eating 6 meals per day for 7 days of the week – that’s 42 meals. 10% of 42 is about 4. Therefore you’re allowed to “break the rules” 4 meals each week.

9) Develop food preparation strategies.

The hardest part about eating well is making sure you can follow the 8 rules above consistently.

10) Balance daily food choices with healthy variety.

Let’s face it; during the week –when you’re busy – you’re not going to be spending a ton of time whipping up gourmet meals. During these times you’re going to need a set of tasty, easy to make foods that you can eat day in and day out.

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Now it's taken me well over 30 minutes to write this, please give it the respect it's due and apply it. Don't question or procrastinate, if you don't understand the terms ask a gym instructor or check on GOOGLE. Most people pay me a small fortune for what I've just given you here, make the most of it.

Hope that helps,

justsomebloke

I would give you some advise, but Boru. has pretty much covered eevrything I could of said. So instead of reading this go back and RE-read his post

Kid Icarus

That was hugely helpful to me also, so thanks!

Lockstep

Rather than waste a whole new thread, I'll hijack this one for a minute

I'm having a problem with getting fats,
I heard Lidl offer unsalted/unroasted nuts for cheap, would they be a good source of fats for me?
Thanks

g'em

kickoutthejams wrote: »

I heard Lidl offer unsalted/unroasted nuts for cheap, would they be a good source of fats for me?

Yes. See here for another thread on this topic. The search button is a truly wonderful invention, you should make friends with it sometime :rolleyes: If you need more info, start a new thread, thanks!!

Cheeky_gal, Boru. has given you some wonderful advice. Now use it. We can't do all the hard work for you, it's going to take some effort on your part too. I know you want someone to tell you exactly what to eat and when to eat it, but it really doesn't work like that. If you don't learn the why's and the how's of good eating, how are you going to know how to do it long term.

At the very minimum, as I've said to you a number of times, you need to eat more. Learn how to snack properly. With Boru.'s information and with all the information in the stickies, why not have a go at seeing where you can change your diet yoruself and then we can go through it again? It doesn't all come together overnight, and it can be frustrating to say the least, but you will get there.

Colm_OReilly

Solid, solid advice from Boru. I'd disagree slightly on the weights but to a degree it's not worth mentioning.

Cheeky_gal

Thanks a MIL for all the advice and Boru especially...wow! Thank you, greatly appreciated!

Vegeta

Its amazing really isn't it when its laid out like that.

Amazing post Boru