Is my diet suitable for my goals?

accensi0n

Goals - To reduce my bodyfat and increase my benchpress


Monday - Friday

7am: Bowl of Muesli, 1 boiled egg

9am: chicken sandwich on wholemeal bread with real butter, 1 banana

12pm: Tin of tuna with lettuce and cucumber and sum extra virgin olive oil drizzled over

2pm: Tin of tuna with lettuce and cucumber and sum extra virgin olive oil drizzled over

7pm: various veg and meat although this could also be fishfingers and waffles

Every couple of days I'll have a chocolate tracker bar during the day and a couple of biscuits during the evening.


Satuday/Sunday

9am-12am(depends): 3 or 4 egg omolette made with 1 yoke, bowl of muesli

1pm-4pm: tin of beans with sausages or a chicken sandwich or fishfingers, sausages and rashers...along those lines.

5pm-8pm: could be the same as a few hours ago or stew or various meat and veg.

Will eat some biscuits over the weekend and philidelphia on riveta and cheese and the like.



Cardio(per week): 20 min slow run 3 times a week, 1 30 min swim, 1 1hr cycle

Weights(every 3 or 4 days): Benchpress - 3 sets of between 3 and 6 reps.



Reading that there my own thoughts would be that:

I should cut out the biscuits and bars and processed food like fishfingers and waffles.

I should do more cardio.

I should do more weights variations for my shoulders which I assume would help with my benchpress. (Currently when I stand up and raise my right arm I get a pain in a muscle in my upper right arm just below the shoulder, I'm sure holding a weight and raising would a bit more painful. )

I should maybe eat something small during the week at about 4pm, there seems to be a 5 hour gap there.



Any advice would be appreciated, cheers.

I'm mainly looking for advice about my diet in relation to serious things like am I getting enough good fats, am I not eating enough veg etc.

ali.c

accensi0n wrote: »

I should do more weights variations for my shoulders which I assume would help with my benchpress.

Not only your shoulders i think you should look at getting a weight training session that hits all the major muscle groups, legs, back, chest whether as a TBT or a split training plan. I am open on correction on this but to me it seems unbalanced just working one muscle group and ignoring the rest and long term wise i dont see it as being a great plan. Plus a more complete plan will help with shifting bodyfat.

Your observations on your diet seem to be spot on, maybe make the changes your proposed and see how you get on?

mack1

accensi0n wrote: »

Reading that there my own thoughts would be that:

I should cut out the biscuits and bars...

Not necessarily, it's important to have cheat meals every now and then. A couple of days a week and both weekend days is a bit much. Maybe cut back a bit, but 1 or 2 cheats a week is not too bad as long as they are small and your diet is good the rest of the time.

accensi0n wrote: »

and processed food like fishfingers and waffles.

YES! Definitely! This is what jumped out at me from your diet. Waffles are rubbish man, get rid!

accensi0n wrote: »

I should do more cardio.

I dont think you NEED to, others may disagree, but I think your time would be better spent....

accensi0n wrote: »

I should do more weights

...doing this! Agree with what Ali said above. Why are you only doing chest/shoulders? Do the rest of the body too!

accensi0n wrote: »

I should maybe eat something small during the week at about 4pm, there seems to be a 5 hour gap there.

Yes, exactly what I was gonna say! You know all the answers yourself already!


Also - is the veg in the evening non-root based? Lots of greens?
and if you are worried about fats try adding some unroasted, unsalted nuts, some avocado, and some healthy oils, like avocado and walnut!

Good work so far, keep it up!

accensi0n

ali.c wrote: »

Not only your shoulders i think you should look at getting a weight training session that hits all the major muscle groups, legs, back, chest whether as a TBT or a split training plan. I am open on correction on this but to me it seems unbalanced just working one muscle group and ignoring the rest and long term wise i dont see it as being a great plan. Plus a more complete plan will help with shifting bodyfat.

Your observations on your diet seem to be spot on, maybe make the changes your proposed and see how you get on?

I plan on starting deadlifting which I'll do after my benchpress.

I'll be taking my diet quite seriously now. My main problem has been consistancy. When I was younger I did so much sport that I was fit and lean without trying to be but now I'm trying to be. For the past few years I'd eat well for a week and then gorge, do weights for a few weeks and then nothing for a few months.

Just want to get some advice here to iron out any problems and then post on my progress say at the end of Februrary.

accensi0n

mack1: cheers for the advice.

The veg would usually be: mashed potato, brocolli, green beans, carrots.

The reason I think I should do more cardio is I want to seriously reduce my bodyfat to create defination.

I agree I should do more weights and will be.

The reason I'm so set on benchpress is that I've set myself a benchpress goal for the end of April and longer term goals.

This is what I'm gunning for:

Improved fitness and stamina.
Serious bodyfat reduction.
Improved benchpress.

Maybe my focus on the benchpress goal is silly and I should just be striving for overall strength increase or maybe having the benchpress goal on top of overall strength increase is the best mentality.

mack1

No, it's not silly to focus on the benchpress goal, but don't use it as an excuse to neglect other areas.
Lifting weights will increase metabolism and increase fat buring, which is also one of your goals. I think your time would be better spent, ie you'll get more bang for your buck, by doing some more weight training instead of more cardio.
Keep your current cardio and find a good total body routine, there's loads on the web, bodybuilding.com etc etc

For diet, I'd drop the potatoes from dinner unless it's after a decent weights session. And don't OD on the carrots, as I said non-root based veg is better!

accensi0n

Right, thanks a mill mack.

Ali: Cheers as well.

wasabi

accensi0n wrote: »

Maybe my focus on the benchpress goal is silly and I should just be striving for overall strength increase or maybe having the benchpress goal on top of overall strength increase is the best mentality.

Accensi0n, you'll get the best increase in your bench press if you train it as part of a balanced programme.

If you trained only bench press you'd eventually get to the point where you'd have a strength imbalance and your shoulder joint would become internally rotated. At that stage your body just won't allow your those muscles to become any stronger because it would make the imbalance worse, and your progress would grind to a halt.

Bear in mind too that a bench press executed with good technique actually requires your whole body - your legs, hips, abs and lower back back will provide leg drive, your upper back will need to be strong to provide stability, and your chest, shoulders and arms obviously do the actual pressing. Training your whole body will get you to a stronger bench press faster than training only bench, and as other posters have said, it'll also help with your fat-loss goals.

Have a look at the programs here for ideas:
http://www.teamtestforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2037

And get info on the various exercises here:
www.exrx.net

You'll also want to get someone to show you and to have a look over your form for most of those exercises, particularly squatting and deadlifting - perhaps one of the trainers in your gym?

accensi0n

Cheers for that Wasabi.

Yeah, I can feel myself using my legs and back while benching.

I'll be deadlifting as well but not squatting as I workout at home.

Cheers for the links.

rubadub

accensi0n wrote: »

I'll be deadlifting as well but not squatting as I workout at home.

I squat at home. I squat what I can get on my back. I can do ~10reps of standing military press at 47kg. I can press 62kg up onto my back now. Then I do 20 squats really deep and controlled. I do them with a bed behind me and dump the weight onto it after, I sit on the bed and lean back and let one side drop.

I can deadlift ~130kg, so the 62kg squat is lower than my max potential, but 20 deep squats and you will feel it! I can have DOMS for 4 days after!

I also use a dipping belt to add more wieght for squatting.

You can do other exercises, one leg at a time for squats & lunges at home.

accensi0n

rubadub wrote: »

I squat at home. I squat what I can get on my back. I can do ~10reps of standing military press at 47kg. I can press 62kg up onto my back now. Then I do 20 squats really deep and controlled. I do them with a bed behind me and dump the weight onto it after, I sit on the bed and lean back and let one side drop.

I can deadlift ~130kg, so the 62kg squat is lower than my max potential, but 20 deep squats and you will feel it! I can have DOMS for 4 days after!

I also use a dipping belt to add more wieght for squatting.

You can do other exercises, one leg at a time for squats & lunges at home.

I guess I'll be giving squatting at home a go so.



So it seems that besides from the processed food and the biscuits and the bars, the rest of my diet is fine (let me know if it isn't of course). Besides from cutting the crappy food I'll make small adjustments like eating more non root veggies.

Cheers for the advice from everyone.

Will do a progress report in a couple of months, maybe take some before photos and do some after photos in a couple of months.

g'em

accensi0n wrote: »

So it seems that besides from the processed food and the biscuits and the bars, the rest of my diet is fine (let me know if it isn't of course). Besides from cutting the crappy food I'll make small adjustments like eating more non root veggies.

Cutting out junk is the #1 thing you can do to improve your diet. sure, there's other little changes that can be made, but you'll discover those as you go along. If you can stick to the foods you've outlined above you'll be doing a damn good job, so start with that and improve on it from there - you'll find you constantly tweak and play with your diet as your goals change and progress increases.

And progress photos are a *brilliant* motivational tool!!

paddy316i

I would go easy on the tuna. 10+ tins a week? Recommendation is 1 tin per week. Something to do with too much mercury in deep water fish