Getting into fitness

pikachucheeks

Hi everyone,

In recent months, I've just been trying to get more into fitness and really taking care of my body.

I'm looking for advice on toning up, particularly the stomach area and diet - how to keep my body full and keep cravings at bay.

Wouldn't necessarily class myself as overweight, I'm pretty much average. I'd like to slim down slightly, without losing my curves, and tone up, as I mentioned.

Diet-wise, I'd consider myself to be relatively healthy. I don't eat ready meals, keep 'junk' and white carbs to a minimum and always aim to get my five fruit and vegetables a day.
Are there any foods that would help to keep me full, or any foods, bar the obvious, that I should avoid? Bit lost

Over the summer, I walked five miles a day, to work and back, just to keep myself active - but since I'm back in college, I'm busing it - so I'm trying to keep active by joining activities: Yoga (did it last college year), Pilates and Kickboxing (all once-twice a week)
Hoping to join a gym within the next few weeks so I can get back into swimming, which I used to do a lot.
Are there any particular exercises I should do, on top of this? Or any particular guidelines I should follow?

Thanks for any help you can give

CoachBoone

The stomach area in general is hyper sensitive to diet. First place you put on the fat and last place to get it off.

Whats your typical daily diet, post it up here and be very honest.

For exercise, do whatever you like doing but make sure you are working hard. I found weights and a strict diet to get the best results but others have said cardio is better.

pikachucheeks

Typical diet ;

Breakfast

Usually nothing, as I'm always legging it out the door for college. If I do eat, it's a piece of fruit (orange, grapefruit or banana, most of the time.)

Lunch

Sandwich on brown bread (usually chicken with lettuce and tomato.)

Dinner

Rice or pasta dish with salad on the side (lettuce, tomato, red, green and yellow peppers, spinach leaves and cucumber)

Snacks

Popcorn
Fruit ; banana, strawberries, blueberries, ... anything I can get my hands on really, bar apples - I have braces and they'd break them.

Drinks

Rarely drink anything fizzy.
Usually just drink as much water as I can. I'll add orange cordial to it, if I feel like the water on its own is too bland.
Fruit juice, usually Innocent Smoothie stuff - glass during the day at some point.

Take-aways / Fast food

Try to avoid it as much as I can. However, there's tons of fast-food places near my college so I have the occasional slip up. Never order a full meal though - usually just get McDonald's chicken nuggets and sometimes twisty fries.
Always feel horribly guilty after it!

Alcohol

Usually drink either Bulmers or vodka and a dash when I'm out, which is once every one or two weeks.
Have about five/six drinks on the average night out.



Should note here I've recently decided to give up dairy as I feel ill after eating dairy products.
Only dairy I'd have had in previous times was a bar of chocolate once a week or so, and the occasional bowl of ice-cream.

As for my stats, I'm 5'4 ... and have no idea what I weight right now, it was 10.5 a few weeks ago.

Khannie

Welcome chukycheeks.

I'd say have a start with the stickies. They have helped me and others an unbelievable amount.

At a minimum you should be eating some breakfast. I'll give you more feedback in a bit. Just popped on for 2 minutes.

G-Money

I've tried various things over the years and had more success with some than with others. For me the biggest hurdle is my head and getting into the habit of going to the gym regularly and eating properly. It's so easy to talk yourself out of going to the gym and that quickly can become a habit.

When it comes to your food intake, you need to be honest with yourself. You often see people having a really high calorie meal but having a diet coke with it, as if that somehow makes up for all the calories they are intaking through the food.

You probably need to have a good look at what you are eating. Also don't exclude alcohol from your calorie intake. I think some people try and convince themselves that certain food is healthy or "isn't that bad" but the reality is that they are trying to fool themselves. I know I do that all the time.

I'm currently trying to motivate myself to go back to the gym but I haven't managed to do so.

My main tips are to do exercise you enjoy or at the very least, do exercise that you don't completely hate and detest. I've had gym programmes where they give me exercises that are absolute killers and I've hated every second of it. And in the end I gave up doing those exercises because of it It doesn't matter how fit it might make you, unless you are training for the Olympics or something, there's no need to be doing some torturous exercise when there's probably a more enjoyable/less hateful equivalent that's just as beneficial.

When it comes to food, just be sensible. The most success I ever had was to just eat healthy, cutting out the crap and going to the gym about 3-4 times a week, doing weights and cardio. Some girls have a fear of doing weights as they find the weights room intimidating and also because they think if they even look at a dumbbell they will end up like one of those freaky looking female bodybuilders. The reality is that even for guys, it takes a huge amount of work to build up loads of muscle. Not being sexist but I think women's physiology means they don't build muscle as easy so unless you are going insane with weights, eating a cow a day for protein and shooting up on testosterone injections, you won't end up looking like some female Arnold Schwarzenegger. Also I believe that muscle helps burn fat when you are resting and cardio burns a lot of calories at the time (depending on intensity etc) but not as much when you are resting. But it's good for general fitness levels plus once you get into it, you will get to love the endorphine boost you get.

I lost about 3 1/2 stone in 6 months a few years ago (all back on now though) but my diet was something like this:

Breakfast: Orange juice, banana, some wheaten/wholemeal bread.

Lunch: Salad with chicken or some sort of meat, maybe with one of those wee half baguettes every few days or so.

Dinner: Lean mince with Dolmio light bolognese and brown rice. Or a grilled chicken breast with grilled veg, brown pasta and some Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce.

I used to "treat" myself on a Friday night with one of those Tesco "healthy" chinese ready mails. The rice was horrible so I'd cook myself a fairly big portion of white rice. I cut out all chocolate and sweets, and biscuits. I think I might have allowed myself diet 7up but I'm not sure. I also cut out the takeaways and everything and I stopped drinking. I actually didn't really go out that much as I didn't want the calories from the drink and I didn't want to go out and stay sober. Plus when you are hungover you just want junk food.

Anyway I'm sort of hoping to get back to that way of thinking but I know I need to change my eating habits and modify them so they are maintainable going forward. There's not much point changing what you eat to lose a few lbs then once you lose it, go back to your old lifestyle and eating habits and you end up right back where you were. I know I'm in that boat at the moment and need to change it.

I also know that you can't just eat like a monk all the time. If you are cutting back on everything and not eating stuff you enjoy now and again, you will just become miserable. And unless you are training to become some sort of Olympic athlete where you have to have like 2% body fat or less, there really is no need to be super strict. I know recently I got this programme from a guy who's into fitness and I can't stick to it as the diet does my head in. It's all protein and veg, grilled or stir fried. No sauces, no carbs, no diary, nothing nice at all. It did my head in.

d'Oracle

For the love of god eat breakfast.

Also I am a firm believer in replacing Rice/pasta with a load of Veg at dinner time. Try Meat/Fish/chicken with loads of veg.

Also, If you like smoothies and that, get a blender and make your own.
Innocent are tasty and all but they cost Crazy money.
You will save money in the long run.

metamorphosis

Welcome from ladies lounge pika.

Stomach is sensitive to diet. im 5ft 11, 67 kgs and my stomach still has some fat on it and i train all week long with marathon training/cycling/pilates. When i eat clean the difference in my stomach is astounding after a short amount of time.

You are in college and so have acces to a gym. Exercise wise do what you enjoy. No point doing something you hate as it could lead you to become de motivated and stop.


The stickies here and in the diet/nutrition forum are superb. Grade a1 stuff in there. Try to stick to whole foods as best you can. Wheat flour(white flour) is terrible stuff for the tummy area. As much as possible stay away from white bread/rice/pasta etc. Go for wholegrain and wholemeal. Regards bread make sure it read 100% wholemeal as many brown bread is actually white bread essentially coloured brown or with a little wholemeal flour thrown in.

Nuts/cottage cheese are also good snack alongside the fruit you take in.

Degsy

Lose the bread,pasta and smoothies(they're FULL of sugar).

Try to hit the gym 3 times a week with a mixture of weights and cardio...ask an instructor what the optimum excercises are and how to use resistance machines and free weights properly.

A bit of swimming after a workout will help a lot and doesnt have the disadvantages of jogging or running(shore shins and knees).

Most of all stick with it..6 weeks time and you should see great results!

eskimo

Wow there's some excellent advice in this thread!

vinylbomb

2 words

Cous Cous.

Amazing stuff.
Totally satisfying, even with only a bit of lemon juice.
Cut out heavy starchy carbs like pastas and white rice, replace it with cous cous, ramp up your fruit and vegetable intake, and I find cutting out red meat doesn't do any harm.
And of course, get a decent exercise routine going.

corkcomp

hi OP, your diet looks ok (ish) but you need to eat breakfast! on the subject of treats, you might be better of letting your hair down for maybe half day per week and then keep diet 100% clean evey other day .. the problem with treats is that sometimes people dont see how they can add up e.g. chocolate only once per week, take away only once per week, cake only once per week! as per previous posters you should do a mix of weights and cardio and I would ramp it up to at least 5 times a week if wanting to drop fat (if you have time for this!) ...

ragg

5 times perweek is very hard to stick to.

3 good weights sessions a week - followed up by a bit of cardio should be plenty, assuming the diet is on track.

corkcomp

ragg wrote: »

5 times perweek is very hard to stick to.

3 good weights sessions a week - followed up by a bit of cardio should be plenty, assuming the diet is on track.

you could get by with hardly any exercise if diet was 100% but most people would prefer to eat healthily MOST of the time and have a little freedom here ...

5 times per week would make a huge difference to somebody trying to drop fat (3 times would be fine for weights though) - most people can find 20 minutes to go for a walk / jog / cycle most days, that is if they want to drop the fat quicker

G86

vinylbomb wrote: »

2 words

Cous Cous.

Amazing stuff.
Totally satisfying, even with only a bit of lemon juice.
Cut out heavy starchy carbs like pastas and white rice, replace it with cous cous, ramp up your fruit and vegetable intake, and I find cutting out red meat doesn't do any harm.
And of course, get a decent exercise routine going.

+1
I fecking love cous cous, it's dead cheap too and you can get different kinds. Just add some kidney beans, mixed leaves, peppers and a wee bit of olive oil, and you've got a yummy lunch

thirtythirty

Lads advice here, but i'll throw it in anyway.

People put waaayyy too much emphasis on diet. Your diet is pretty good as it is (though eat breakfast!), and i say v good in comparison to 85% of the population. You'll find a lot of health freaks (in the nicest possible way) on here who i think almost reduce eating to a functional operation and take any enjoyment out of it! I would take elements from these people's suggestions, but dont worry about cutting out meat and all carbs etc, just eat as you do, but with a healthy breakfast.

What you need to over-haul is the excercise. Walking, yoga, and pilates are fine for toning, but useless for actually having the tone show! You need more cardio. If you did a 30 - 40 min cycle at 65 - 75% effort you would probably burn about 300 calories, maybe more depending on how you approach it.

"this is the maths bit"

if you burned 1500 calories a week, that's just over half a kilo of fat. In a month and a half that could be a stone of fat burnt.

If you combined that with whatever else you're doing (1 hour's exercise 4 - 5 times a week total) you'd be on a v good road.

The hardest bit of it all is motivating yourself to do the exercise, but it's easily a routine you get into. When people are doing stuff after college, joining them an hour and a half later makes no odds, so you don't "miss out" on anything!

Plus with cycling you'll tone your ass up, which is never a bad thing

corkcomp

spottyelephant wrote: »

Lads advice here, but i'll throw it in anyway.

People put waaayyy too much emphasis on diet. Your diet is pretty good as it is (though eat breakfast!), and i say v good in comparison to 85% of the population. You'll find a lot of health freaks (in the nicest possible way) on here who i think almost reduce eating to a functional operation and take any enjoyment out of it! I would take elements from these people's suggestions, but dont worry about cutting out meat and all carbs etc, just eat as you do, but with a healthy breakfast.

What you need to over-haul is the excercise. Walking, yoga, and pilates are fine for toning, but useless for actually having the tone show! You need more cardio. If you did a 30 - 40 min cycle at 65 - 75% effort you would probably burn about 300 calories, maybe more depending on how you approach it.

"this is the maths bit"

if you burned 1500 calories a week, that's just over half a kilo of fat. In a month and a half that could be a stone of fat burnt.

If you combined that with whatever else you're doing (1 hour's exercise 4 - 5 times a week total) you'd be on a v good road.

The hardest bit of it all is motivating yourself to do the exercise, but it's easily a routine you get into. When people are doing stuff after college, joining them an hour and a half later makes no odds, so you don't "miss out" on anything!

Plus with cycling you'll tone your ass up, which is never a bad thing

I would agree with a lot of the this .. I would add though - DO lift heavy weights and DO pay attention to diet at least 80% of the time ... if you are taining hard you dont need to be a diet nazzi but you still cant expect to eat crap and get away with it ..

ragg

corkcomp wrote: »

you could get by with hardly any exercise if diet was 100% but most people would prefer to eat healthily MOST of the time and have a little freedom here ...

5 times per week would make a huge difference to somebody trying to drop fat (3 times would be fine for weights though) - most people can find 20 minutes to go for a walk / jog / cycle most days, that is if they want to drop the fat quicker

Ok, i missunderstood - I don't count walking the dog as exercise, i just class it as part of my daily routine. If we are counting things like that then yea, i'd agree, be more active everyday is great advice.

I though you meant 5 gym sessions a week - which is too hard to stick to for most people, imo

corkcomp

ragg wrote: »

Ok, i missunderstood - I don't count walking the dog as exercise, i just class it as part of my daily routine. If we are counting things like that then yea, i'd agree, be more active everyday is great advice.

I though you meant 5 gym sessions a week - which is too hard to stick to for most people, imo

five sessions where you break a sweat, if that happens when walking the dog then great, if not up the pace to a running speed! five gym sessions would great also if the OP has the time ... two of these could be cardio only or swimming .. anything really once you are working and burning cals

Transform

spottyelephant wrote: »

Lads advice here, but i'll throw it in anyway.

People put waaayyy too much emphasis on diet. Your diet is pretty good as it is (though eat breakfast!), and i say v good in comparison to 85% of the population. You'll find a lot of health freaks (in the nicest possible way) on here who i think almost reduce eating to a functional operation and take any enjoyment out of it! I would take elements from these people's suggestions, but dont worry about cutting out meat and all carbs etc, just eat as you do, but with a healthy breakfast.

What you need to over-haul is the excercise. Walking, yoga, and pilates are fine for toning, but useless for actually having the tone show! You need more cardio. If you did a 30 - 40 min cycle at 65 - 75% effort you would probably burn about 300 calories, maybe more depending on how you approach it.

"this is the maths bit"

if you burned 1500 calories a week, that's just over half a kilo of fat. In a month and a half that could be a stone of fat burnt.

If you combined that with whatever else you're doing (1 hour's exercise 4 - 5 times a week total) you'd be on a v good road.

The hardest bit of it all is motivating yourself to do the exercise, but it's easily a routine you get into. When people are doing stuff after college, joining them an hour and a half later makes no odds, so you don't "miss out" on anything!

Plus with cycling you'll tone your ass up, which is never a bad thing

there is no taking any enjoyment out of it when it comes to changes in diet - you just find as nice alternatives.

Also, your advice is enough to get most people started and to a point where the are doing well and looking good but will not take most people to a higher level if they want to go there.

Overall solid advice though

ragg

corkcomp wrote: »

five sessions where you break a sweat, if that happens when walking the dog then great, if not up the pace to a running speed! five gym sessions would great also if the OP has the time ... two of these could be cardio only or swimming .. anything really once you are working and burning cals

Yeah, all i can go on is my experience - i lost 3 stone and about 7 or 8 inches off my waist by dieting and weight training 3 times a week, sometimes i would add cardio, sometimes i would add a circuit training day, other times i'd just train hard with weights.

Like i said 5 times a week is a good goal, but probably unachievable for most people. A rest day after a full body weights session, is pretty important too, imo