Need Advice

OREGATO

First time posting in the fitness section.

Basically been lurking here for the past few weeks and generally having a read of all the different topics, seems to be a good place for me to ask a few questions.

Right, basically, I'll start with a short introduction:

I'm 23 years of age, am 5'7 and weigh just over 17 stone. I was quite active (playing sports and walking etc) until i turned around 19 - 20, then started working/college and things went downhill from there.

I was a smoker (up until 7 months ago) and I don't drink either.

I have joined a gym since April but haven't seen any improvements on anything (its hard to get time, but i'm trying to make more time for it)

Basically, I need advice on diet, exercise and schedule (I work a lot).

Diet:
Breakfast - Consists of maybe a cereal bar or two nothing else, or most of the time I don't bother

Lunch - Can be leftovers from the night before (pasta, home made fried rice) sometimes deli rolls (hot chicken with cheese and tomato)

Dinner - Depending on work and other stuff Pizza (fast food), Chinese (fast food) or i cook at home (anything from chicken to fish) with rice (I'm of Asian origin so eat a lot of rice)

Snacks - none really, i won't go shops and buy crisps or bars ever. I drink the occasional coca cola.

Gym/Exercise
Currently at the moment, routine is loosely the following:

Bike - 15 mins
Treadmill - 15 mins (mix of 1 minute jog/sprint or as long as i can go and fast paced walking)
Crosstrainer - 10 mins (only on occasion or i'll do this instead of the treadmill)

Weights
Leg extension - 3 sets of 10 reps
ab crunch - 3 sets of 10 reps
Pull downs - 3 sets of 10 reps

I try to go to the gym at least three times a week (if i can)


Schedule:
Currently working two jobs (9 - 5) Monday - Friday and 6pm - 11pm two week day nights a week and a weekend shift of 5pm - 1am

Problem with the night time job is I don't get a chance to eat a meal during the time I'm working and i know that this is a problem I have.

Just looking for peoples thoughts and advice on what I should change on my diet, my gym exercise - this would be greatly appreciated and on my schedule - ways to deal with not being able to eat for a few hours etc.

The main thing is my gym routine, I just need some guidance on where to go with it and what to do.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post.

Ore

top madra

not bein harsh but your diet sucks.
are you tryin just to lose weight or what?
ceral bars for breakfast is just wrong

OREGATO

top madra wrote: »

not bein harsh but your diet sucks.
are you tryin just to lose weight or what?
ceral bars for breakfast is just wrong

I know my diet sucks.. mostly the reason why I'm posting up looking for advice.

Yeah, main thing at the moment is to lose weight

Cereal bars as I said, I might get have one in the morning, thats all.

bladespin

Not an expert but an easy bit of advice to follow would be to cut down on the carby foods, Pizza, chips, bread, should make a noticable difference fairly quickly.

Congrats on giving up the smokes, went the same way myself, put on a lot of weight after too, getting to grips only now (16 months).

OREGATO

bladespin wrote: »

Not an expert but an easy bit of advice to follow would be to cut down on the carby foods, Pizza, chips, bread, should make a noticable difference fairly quickly.

Congrats on giving up the smokes, went the same way myself, put on a lot of weight after too, getting to grips only now (16 months).

thanks for the advice yeah, i've read the forums and one thing I will work on is getting away from the carby foods, but sometimes, its difficult to prepare food after work, especially coming home at 11 (and having work at 8.30 the next day)

any tips on what to do? recipes to prepare that are quick and easy? instead of picking up the phone and ordering a pizza?

Cigarettes were quite difficult to get off, but i'm happy i've come so far they were really making me worse.

Canis Lupus

Your weights routine is mostly pointless. I've been on starting strength for 5 weeks now and absolutely loving it more than anything else weight related I've done in the gym before. I do the practical program.

Starting Strength

You can work in cardio on the off days but I don't any reason why you can't start that as a more structured approach.

Your diet is bad but then unless you live under a rock you know what you need to do about that.

Gratz on the smokes. I'm 1.5 years off em now. Best life choice I ever made.

jujujujuju

hi,
1 way I would recommend to lose weight fast is though the power of eggs!
Im not talking strict atkins diet at all...
just try to replace breakfast and maybe some dinner with egss sometimes.

I know carbs are easy, fast, convenient and hit the spot when your hungry but eggs can be just as quick.

I often grab 3 eggs, some delish pesto sauce or tomato paste, season up with butter and loads of pepper, put in a little cheese if you like, mix it all together and microwave for 3.5mins...
soo easy and tasty
it really fills you up too....
its all about the protein
even looking at pizza, mayo sambos etc.. would make me put on weight.
you need to AVOID!

OREGATO

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Your weights routine is mostly pointless. I've been on starting strength for 5 weeks now and absolutely loving it more than anything else weight related I've done in the gym before. I do the practical program.

Starting Strength

You can work in cardio on the off days but I don't any reason why you can't start that as a more structured approach.

Your diet is bad but then unless you live under a rock you know what you need to do about that.

Gratz on the smokes. I'm 1.5 years off em now. Best life choice I ever made.

Cheers for the advice. I might give that routine a go, but in the gym where i'm currently at, i tend to go near peak times, so its difficult to get access to dumbells etc. tbh, i'd feel a lot more comfortable working on the machines as opposed to lifting weights and doing squats (self conscious factor kicking in)

Also, I know you're saying that on my 'off' days i could do cardio, but i was hoping that i could do it a little different, because of my routine, i may find myself going to the gym on only wednesday and thursday so i would hope to do something like cardio on both days, but concentrate on upper body on the wednesday and then lower body on thursday, that type of thing.

OREGATO

jujujujuju wrote: »

hi,
1 way I would recommend to lose weight fast is though the power of eggs!
Im not talking strict atkins diet at all...
just try to replace breakfast and maybe some dinner with egss sometimes.

I know carbs are easy, fast, convenient and hit the spot when your hungry but eggs can be just as quick.

I often grab 3 eggs, some delish pesto sauce or tomato paste, season up with butter and loads of pepper, put in a little cheese if you like, mix it all together and microwave for 3.5mins...
soo easy and tasty
it really fills you up too....
its all about the protein
even looking at pizza, mayo sambos etc.. would make me put on weight.
you need to AVOID!

thanks for the advice and the recipe , my only concern with eggs is of the high cholesterol.

I know that there is no magical way of losing weight over night and don't buy into any of those fast weight loss schemes so I know it will take time and persistence to get results.

I'm just looking at advice on the best way to incorporate it into my lifestyle and habits

again, thanks for the advice and keep it coming

Oryx

As youve already heard, your diet is disastrous and you need to do more in the gym.

When you go, try to spend longer, so youve time to do more cardio. And ask for a different weight regime entirely. Ask about compound exercises.

Eat breakfast, throw away your leftovers instead of eating them, and also get rid of the numbers of whoever does your takeaway delivery.:) It may seem like a huge change to make, but it will become as much of a habit to cook, as ordering in is now. It just takes a bit of willpower and sticking to it for a few weeks.

Things like scrambled eggs, stirfry, wraps all take just minutes to prep. Get a ten minute healthy recipe cookbook and shop based on that.

OREGATO

Oryx wrote: »

As youve already heard, your diet is disastrous and you need to do more in the gym.

When you go, try to spend longer, so youve time to do more cardio. And ask for a different weight regime entirely. Ask about compound exercises.

Eat breakfast, throw away your leftovers instead of eating them, and also get rid of the numbers of whoever does your takeaway delivery.:) It may seem like a huge change to make, but it will become as much of a habit to cook, as ordering in is now. It just takes a bit of willpower and sticking to it for a few weeks.

Things like scrambled eggs, stirfry, wraps all take just minutes to prep. Get a ten minute healthy recipe cookbook and shop based on that.

thanks for the post Oryx, roughly, I currently spend around 1 hr to 1.30 hrs in the gym but i'm trying to make the best of my time (ie take shorter breaks between exercises and move on)
When you say 'ask' for a different weight regime or about compound exercises, tbh, i find it difficult to ask the staff there. Would much prefer to do my own research or get advice elsewhere (sounds dumb but its just the way i feel)
Numbers for the takeaways have already been deleted, however, the reason, I keep leftovers is so that I have lunch for tomorrow, like if I'm making rice and chicken, or pasta, I'll cook extra so that I have some for lunch the next day. Buying lunch is a rip off around where I work and making it may not always be an option, so the easiest is to just cook extra and leave some for lunch.

I guess you're right about the stir frys and wraps as well, I do enjoy cooking and have done so since an early age so cooking is not a problem, sometimes, its just finding the time or the effort (After two shifts a day) to cook.

OREGATO

Oryx wrote: »

Get a ten minute healthy recipe cookbook and shop based on that.

would anyone recommend any good ones i should try?

Colm_OReilly

Oregato,

What's going to raise your cholesterol is the bread,pasta and rice. Eggs won't be a problem.

You keep on rejecting advice from people re: weights and then asking about cardio machines. No one cares about what the other people in the gym are doing, so get in there and squat! And ask the trainers for a routine, you're paying your money, so get your service.