Advice on starting a diet

zeusnero

Hi all

I'm a first time poster in this forum so please bear with me. Recently I decided enough was enough and it was time to get fit - after loads of various diets throughout my life this time I intend to make this one work and hopefully continual posting here will help along the way.

Current Stats as of Sep 22 2008:

27yr old male - 186cm (6.1ft) - 95kg

Ideally I'd like to knock about 20 kilos off that (aiming for a BMI of 22 from current of 27) through good diet and exercise. When I say exercise, I mean tennis, badminton, soccer and running (of which I should be doing circa 10-15 hours of intense training per week - for example I played 4hrs of badminton at a tournament followed by 1hr of tennis yesterday, not a typical day but maybe twice per month).

I was hoping to get some advice about the right diet to follow from some knowledgeable posters on here - Seeing as I do want to lose the 20kg but I would also like to gain muscle mass. To be honest though, gaining muscle in my mind is definately secondary to losing the weight...

Any advice would be appreciated.

EileenG

Basically, clean up your diet. Cut out all the junk, and concentrate on eating fresh whole foods.

Aim for small frequent meals, each one with a quality protein, a healthy fat and a green vegetable. Drink lots of water, but some coffee and tea is fine too. If you drink, stop or cut way way back. Cut out all sugar, white flour, transfats, processed foods and anything with ingredients that sound more like a chemical experiement than food.

Plan to eat lots of eggs, fish (especially oily fish), meat, lots and lots of green vegetables, olive oil, some nuts, cheese, fruit, wholegrains.

Eat enough protein. A meta analysis of diets found that the single factor which predicted the success of a diet was the amount of protein being eaten. If you get your protein in, you can distribute your fats and carbs to suit your taste.

Beware of the food pyramid. It's a great diet for competitive athletes, but not for weight loss. You'll probably find that you need to cut way back on the amount of bread, pasta, rice etc that's recommended to lose weight. Particularly as the average amount we eat in Ireland is way more than a recommended portion size. Eat less pasta and twice as much veg.

zeusnero

Hi Eileen,

Thanks for the information - Sounds like I need to start planning out what and when I eat as my meals times tend to be slightly irregular.

Have already cut out pasta and rice, still need to kick white bread for wholemeal and even then have as little of that as possible. I don't drink any alcohol, coffee or tea and I'm drinking approximately 3 litres of water per day now and about 1 litre of milk (low fat). More than anything else I find milk hardest to cut.

I'll work on getting as much protein as possible in as well - already eating a lot of lean, boiled chicken and some red meats but that's about it. What is the best source of protein to add in and would protein supplements be worthwhile?

EileenG

Milk can definitely work as part of a good diet.

Green tea is worth keeping, especially as the weather gets colder.

Try eating a couple of eggs at breakfast, maybe some fish at lunchtime (you can open a tin of tuna or salmon or sardines) with some salad, then chicken or steak etc at dinner.

Protein supplements are probably a good idea if you are lifting weights. A whey shake after weight training really does help recovery. Whey can be a handy emergency meal, but in general, you are better to eat your calories rather than drink them.

Remember, fat is not bad, it's an essential part of your diet. You don't have to cut out things like nuts, cheese, steak, salmon etc.

zeusnero

Well, it's 3 years on and time for an update. Finally got my ass into gear this year and am sticking to a healthy & nutritional diet while combining that with 2-3 gym sessions per week and 8-12 hours of Badminton.

From April to July of this year I went from 96 - 90 kilos, kicked up the regime a little in August and am now at 85. I'm really happy with this and have so much motivation to keep going but I'm wondering what should be my target weight?

According to the BMI I'm now at a healthy, normal weight but with the gym sessions and improved diet presumably I'll shortly start increasing muscle mass and the weight loss will slow.

Any advice would be appreciated!

zeusnero

While I'm at it, I guess it might be useful to throw up my current diet

Standard Breakfast

Banana Milkshake with 1 scoop of whey Protein

Lunch or Dinner (mix of 1 or 2)

Roast Chicken Breast / Pizza / Homemade Vegetable Soup / Pasta / Vegetable Platter / Fajitas / Lean Steak /

Snacks (Max 1 portion per day)

Fruit Smoothie's / Milk / Ham Toastie / Rice Crackers / Cereal /

EileenG

Rather than aiming at a weight, I would aim at a jean size, or at physical state, like a six pack, or visible vascularity.

Or aim at a particular bench or squat weight, or to run a mile in a certain time.

arandale

Eileen, what kind of Whey Protein would you recommend.

Thanks in advance

EileenG

Whatever you can afford and like the taste of. As long as it is around 80% protein, there's not much between them. I like the ON whey, the Kinetica, Scitec, and a few others.

zeusnero

EileenG wrote: »

Rather than aiming at a weight, I would aim at a jean size, or at physical state, like a six pack, or visible vascularity.

Or aim at a particular bench or squat weight, or to run a mile in a certain time.

in that case I guess I'll go for the unreachable six pack

thanks again Eileen!

EileenG

Maybe a four pack? Something that is achievable, not something that's impossible for you.