assess me - debating getting a personal trianer

katiejane85

Hi,

I've struggled with my weight all my life. I lost 4 stone about 5 years ago and slowly 2 stone of that has crept back on. I am by no means 'fat' but im about 10 pounds/ a stone heavier than i'd like to be. i am 5"6/5"7 female and weight about 10 stone 10 pounds.

Im debating getting a trainer for 2 reasons:

1: To advise me on a time-efficient way to keep in shape (i do not enjoy exercise!!)
2: Advise me nutritionally.

Mostly my diet is good - Mon-Fri im good but at the weekends I treat myself a bit. My problem is i choose low fat foods - not necessarily healthy, high protein ones etc.

I want to get in shape (by exercising more) and by eating properly - not low fat stuff if that makes sense. I dont know what I should be eating and what I should avoid.

Currently my diet Mon - Fri is as follows:

9am: Breakfast
Innocent smoothie
Bowl special k (no milk)
Low fat yogurt

11am: Snack - banana

115pm: Lunch
Chicken
roast veg
noodle salad with sweet chilli sauce

4pm: snack
diet coke and cereal bar/popcorn


730pm:Dinner
Chicken breast
Broccolli
Sweet potatoes

Treat - mini pack malteasers (maybe twice a week)

Weekend - I'm not as strict and will allow myself a takeaway one night with a few drinks at some point as well.

Can someone into fitness please advise me what I need to change and maybe give me an example of a typical daily diet I should be eating?

Also, what kind of exercise should I be doing to lose some weight. Is a 20 min run with some squats, sit ups and press ups enough 3 times a week?

Thanks!

Chubbcakes

Hi there

I know you think you eat well, but there is far too much sugar in your diet.
Go to a nutritonist and get tested for allergies as some foods may not agree with you, so making it harder to lose weight.

Hope this helps

Chubbcakes

9am: Breakfast
Innocent smoothie - sugar
Bowl special k (no milk) - sugar - repalce with porridge
Low fat yogurt - sugar - replace with soy

11am: Snack - banana ok

115pm: Lunch
Chicken how much?
roast veg - what kind?
noodle salad - white noodles? - sugar
with sweet chilli sauce - red coloured sugar
4pm: snack
diet coke and cereal bar/popcorn - sugar


730pm:Dinner
Chicken breast how much?
Broccolli ok
Sweet potatoes - sugar - sweet potato and carrots are starchy...better to have raw.


Treat - mini pack malteasers (maybe twice a week) - sugar

Weekend - I'm not as strict and will allow myself a takeaway - FAT + SUGAR one night with a few drinks = SUGAR at some point as well.

Can someone into fitness please advise me what I need to change and maybe give me an example of a typical daily diet I should be eating?

Also, what kind of exercise should I be doing to lose some weight. Is a 20 min run with some squats, sit ups and press ups enough 3 times a week?

Thanks![/quote]

katiejane85

Thanks chubbcakes - great name by the way - do you think if I reduce my sugar intake this could help?

At dinner i would have 1 large chicken breast

Quandary

Hi OP,

Maybe im wrong here but i think you need to be going a lot more cardio than just 3 X 20 min jogs a week. I would recommend at least another 10-15 mins of additional cardio per training session maybe on a cross trainer or exercise bike.

Just my 2c anyway, best of luck.

Realex: Jonathan

I'm no expert but I pretend to be one on the interwebs.
You seem to be taking in very little protein and a lot of carbs. Also if you try and limit your diet to something matching what you've put up here you're going to find that you go on mini binges out of boredom with what you're eating as much as anything else.
There's some great sites online that can give you a good mix of recipes that are healthy and easy to cook, you can even go so far as to get a whole weeks worth of an eating plan on the site and then print off the shopping list for it. www.menshealth.com have a really good nutrition section (i know you're a girl but it's just as good for you).

Keep you diet varied and try to get involved in classes in the gym rather than just going in yourself and messing away. If you sign up for some classes in your gym (most of them are free) you'll meet people and have some fun. It's also a good way to keep mixing things up, running on the treadmill isn't a great way to lose weight (well to burn fat at least) if you do the sort of interval training provided by spin classes or body pump/circuit classes you'll see much better results. Even if you have to pay for these it'll be a lot less than a trainer and to be honest there's some seriously dodgy trainers knocking around,

Lastly you should always keep in mind how many calories there are in alcoholic drinks. A glass of wine can have over a hundred calories and things like Smirnoff Ice or Bacardi Breezer are worse than coke for you. Try to restrict your alcohol intake to special occasions or just have one night a month that you let your hair down.

Drink heaps of water and avoid eating any carbohydrates late at night (after 8pm), you'll find you sleep better too as your body is able to shut down for the night rather than breaking dwon those carbs when you go to bed.

katiejane85

Thanks quandary and jonathan - maybe increasing it and taking classes is the way to go.

I was planning on meeting a pt i know from a gym (he used to teach excellent classes in a city centre gym) so i was hoping he could devise a plan for me that wasnt necessarily gym focused - outdoor, exercises at home, recommend classes etc. His sessions are quite cheap - e30 app - and I was going to visit him maybe once a month so we could mix things up each time. I know its best to change up your routine every 4-6 weeks.