Diet help, please :)

Will

Hey everyone,

As of late I've started going to the gym. Trying to lose fat and put on muscle. I never had to worry about what I was eating because I was always relatively active. Anywho year and a half later of little or no exercise, fair few pounds heavier to boot I'm doing my best to get fit.

I really am quite new to this.
I've cut out fizzy drinks, barreling water (as opposed to beer) into me like it was the eve of the famine. Cutting down on beer (haven't drank since I joined the gym, over 2 weeks ago)

Protein, I'm trying to get that into me too. Chicken fillets, eggs things like that. I am eating way too many carbohydrates, takes up about 60% of my daily diet. Trying to rectify this. Salt is out of my diet also, well as much as I can.

Are supplements like whey powder good? Should I be looking into these?

As I'm pretty new to all this I've really no clue how much and how often I should be eating. Any feedback would be welcome.

Thanks a lot!

Macha

Well, why don't you tell us what you would eat on an average day? ie

8am Breakfast X....
10am Snack X...

ALso your usual weekly exercise plan?

Then we can give some decent more tailored advice

Will

Ah ok cool

Breakfast: 2 pieces of weetabix with milk. Sometimes have a cup of coffee, depends if I'm late or not.

Mid morning: Usually an apple and possible a banana too.

Lunch: This can vary, sometimes I get sushi. Sometimes I get a panini with chicken and ham. Other days I get wraps with chicken.

Mid afternoon: If theres any fruit left I will take a piece, if not I will get a coffee and a scone.

When work is done I go to the gym every second day.
Workout I originally had was all cardio but I've altered it somewhat to incorporate weights.
I usually warm up with 2,000 metres on the rowing machine in about 10minutes. I try to improve everytime but I keep in mind its only a warm up.
As of late I then go and do some weights focussing every second day on different parts, i.e
monday - chest/biceps
wednesday - Legs/back
Friday - Shoulders/triceps

I will then cool down on the bike then hit the showers etc.
I get home about 40minutes later where I will have dinner. This can vary hugely too but I'm trying to eat more healthily as of late.

Throughout the day I also drink about 3-4 litres of water.

Any better?

Macha

OK there are people here who know way more than me but I'll weigh in with my 2 cent.

Breakfast: Weetabix ain't bad at all. Breakfast is a very important meal so you could look at adding some lean protein to your breakfast so slices of ham, egg white omlette? Also, have you tried porridge? It really is one of the best breakfasts

Snack: You should be aiming for 5-7 small meals throughout the day of similar sizes. So you could make your snack a bit bigger by adding a yogurt (natural yog has less sugar than fruit ones). I like to chop up a piece of fruit into some natural yogurt & adding some mixed seeds (Holland & Barrett). Remember fruit does have sugar in it so by pairing it with something else (like a handful of nuts), you're reducing the impact that sugar will have on your blood sugar levels.

Lunch: Sushi is great for getting your protein & good fats in but it can be a bit heavy on the carb side. Ditto with the panini. Maybe a wrap instead of the panini? Also, have you looked at salads? (Note: you could start making your own lunch)

Snack:Sounds like you're leaving your diet a bit to chance. You could make sure you buy enough fruit for the entire week when you're shopping. Again see below for comments on snack size. Bags of nuts are a great thing to have around your desk for when you're feeling peckish.

Post-work out: It's very important to get something into you as soon as possible after a workout. The ideal ration is carbs: protein (2:1). In other words, if you have 40g of carbs and 20g of protein that's about right. There are postwork out drinks you can buy in powder format. That way you don't have to worry about combining foods & you can throw it in your gym bag & have your drink straight after you're done.

-side note on protein powders: for me protein powders are about pure convenience. You throw the powder in a shaker, shake it up & down it. Done in about 30 seconds. I personally find them particularly convenient as I only eat chicken & not a lot at that. I'm sure others on here can give you more in-depth advice.

Dinner: Hard to say as you didn't give details but really for weight-loss purposes this meal should just be protein & veg - try to limit the carbs. So a chicken breast & a stir-fry or a chicken salad. Tofu stir fry, etc, etc.

Just on the salt issue - the more you cook your own food from the basic raw ingredients, the more control you have over what you put in your body. So if you do up a chicken salad & bring that in for lunch, you can control how much salt you put in it far better than going into Tesco & trying to compare the nutritional data on all of their chicken salads & just going for the best of a bad lot.

3-4 litres of water is excessive in my opinion, but I know there are people here who think that 3-4 litres should be standard. Nevertheless it's good to drink plenty of water as it fills you up & often people mistake thirst for hunger.

Phew! Someone else can better critique your fitness than I can.

Will

Thanks so much, yeah will start making my own stir fry's for lunch. Its usually what I eat for dinner anyway with chicken fillets.

Any protein powders you guys could recommend me? I will pop into a health food store during the week and see what they have.

Thanks again taconnol

Macha

Well I use two proteins:

1) Nectar protein. It has zero carbs, which is handy & it tastes like fruit juice.
2) IDS Sports Multi-Pro Whey Vanilla - great for putting in smoothies, etc

Maybe ask in the fitness forum about the proteins & exercise

Naos

On the Whey Protein front, I recently purchased from pronutrition.ie - Got a big tub 6lb for 55euro and it came in 3 days. I bought a tub less than half it's size for 30 odd from Holland & Barrets and that was during a sale.

Lola87

taconnol wrote: »

Well I use two proteins:

1) Nectar protein. It has zero carbs, which is handy & it tastes like fruit juice.
2) IDS Sports Multi-Pro Whey Vanilla - great for putting in smoothies, etc

Maybe ask in the fitness forum about the proteins & exercise

If you don't mind me asking...where do you get the nectar protein? Sounds great!

Macha

I recently found it in a supplement shop in Capel St for €39.95, haven't found it anywhere cheaper to be honest. Are you in Dublin? The taste is a little bit artificial, but then again all protein shakes taste a bit artificial.

The other one, IDS Sport Vanilla Cream only has 1g of carbs in each serving of 26g of protein and it tastes really gooood...

Macha

Oh just found the cheapest Nectar protein!

http://www.universalnutrition.ie/viewproduct/69 - €13 cheaper than buying it in a shop!

Only problem is they don't have fuzzy navel flavour but that may be temporary.