Doctor's Orders

FatBastard123

Hi all,

First post as FatBastard123 but a regular Boardsie.

I'm Male, 42, 183cm, 97 KG, have had high blood pressure/hypertension for over 10 years and love my food and beers.

Wake up call on Thursday from my GP that I neeed to lose 12kg if I want to live to a ripe old age.

My BMI is 29 and I've developed a real gut over the last 12 months so I know I'm at a tipping point. Either I get in shape ASAP or I'll quickly get to a point where I'm 110 KG and past the point of no return.

I've been a gym goer on and off but never very committed. Since Xmas I've been going back 2-3 times a week before work (7am to 8:30am) and my routine currently consists of 10 mins on the reclined bike doing the Fat Burner Plus programme, 8 mins on the rowing machine and then the tread mill where I walk at 6.0 km p/h and jog at 9.5km p/h as follows:-

2 mins walk
5 mins jog
2 mins walk
10 mins jog
3 mins walk
10 mins jog
2 mins walk
5 mins jog
2 mins walk

Total 41 mins and about 5.3km

Whilst this is better than doing nothing I know it's far from optimal and won't get me to 85kg.

I need to radically change the way I live in terms of eating, drinking and excercising and I guess I'm here looking for some help.

My usual breakfast consists of a half bowl of porridge with honey and half a bannana followed by two poached eggsw on brown toast with butter and Marmite + a cup of sweet tea (two big spoons of sugar) and a big glass of freshly squeezed oragnge juice, usually 2-3 big oranges. I take my blood pressure tablet and a high dose Omega 3 fish oil every day with breakfast.

Depending on work I will either skip lunch entirely or nip home and make up some sort of ham and cheeze sandwich with another cup of sweet tea or a Tuna/Mayo/Scallion sandwich. The problem is I always have two of these sandwiches to satisfy my appetite.

For dinner I'll usually have home cooked food which varies from Lasange with Garlic Bread to a beef salad and if there's no dinner my favourite "quick dinner" is 5 fish fingers grilled in a brown bread sandwich with loads of ketchup and white pepper.

Friday nights are Chinese or Indian take away + 6 or 7 bottles of lager at home and Saturday night is either similar or out for 5-6 pints of Guinness.

Writing all the above has been kind of theraputic and I can see some of the obvious stuff I need to do but I would really appreciate the thoughts of experienced Boardsies here in terms of practical things I can do to turn the situation around and change my diet/excercise lifestyle so I get down to 85kg over the next few months and can keep it that way.

I really really don't want to adopt some crash diet or unsustainable diet/excercise routine which will get me to 85kg but not be sustainable long term.

All feedback (positive or negative) and suggestions much appreciated.

Regards,

FatBastard123

WalterMitty

that workout alone is not gonna do much to change your body shape . You need to start doing weights. This will help you gain lean muscle which will raise the amount of calories your body burns (even at rest) and help you keep the weight down.
Your diet starts good but gradually goes down hill throughout the day and the week. Cut back on bread, you eat a lot of it, eat less of it and make sure its a high fibre/low carb one. Cut back on the likes of pasta too. I think you would benefit from making a food diary where you add up your caories thru the day and then if you wanna lose weight you need to cut tital calories.
Eat more lean meat/fish , not bread sticks with some fish in them. Eat much more veg and cut back on glasses of OJ, it has the same calories per 100ml as coca cola! Eat one unjuiced orange instead of drinking 3.

You can still have a treat at weekends bit dont go overboard. Drink less or maybe only one night. The calories in the beer can be incorporated into your weekly total but the extra/junk food you end up ending while drinking is the main prob IMO and you tend to eat poorly the next day too.

Good luck, make a plan, set your goals, measure things, your right that a sustainable plan is necessary for long term success so make many small manageable changes to your life.

red herring

I would strongly advise taking up a sport. Something not hugely strenuous but it will get you moving. Its hard going to the gym, and sometimes boring! but if you have a sport to look forward to every week and theres a social aspect to it, you have a greater chance of improving your life-style long term. With the gym you can be really motivated for 2 months, then get fed up because some people dont find it sociable/fun, and quit. However I know some people who love the gym and cant wait to hit it every day, so you could be one of them.
But if you took up a sport you would associate exercise with fun and not just hard work. I would recommend tennis, badminton, football- even football with your mates once a week would get the blood pumping! cycling clubs, boxing clubs.. you wouldnt have to take it real competitive, just enjoy it! couple that with regular gym visits and you'll be well on your way!:)

cmyk

FatBastard123 wrote: »

I really really don't want to adopt some crash diet or unsustainable diet/excercise routine which will get me to 85kg but not be sustainable long term.

Well done for posting and wanting to do something about it. Small changes with a weekly diet like that alone should yield results, what you're currently doing in the gym is completely negated by what you're eating and drinking.

Why not try to limit your takeaways to one per week, and limit your beer on a friday night to 1 or 2, take something out or replace it with a healthier alternative each week. This will get easier as you start seeing results. As you say, you can spot the mistakes in your diet having written them down.

In terms of exercise, can you do bodyweight work such as press ups and squats?

Kite Runner

Hi FB123
I was probably were you are a year ago to 18 months ago, I was (ok I was older)
43yrs, 105kgs, 24% bodyfat(and that’s being kind)Waist 37in
Squat 30kg incl the bar, Bench press 35kg, one max reps, cholesterol 7.5, (which no amount of benecol will shift)
now
44yrs, 89 Kg, 16.2%bodyfat, waist 33ins, still trying to get to 85 kgs,
Squat 110kg, BP 85kg, DL 110kg, one max reps, cholesterol 4.7.

There was no secret, like most middle aged guys it all just suddenly crept up on me, and the final straw was the holiday photographs,

What worked for me was, getting with the weights, ( I was always an aerobic/cardio adherent, sport was primarily rowing).I joined the gym and halfway through the year invested in an Olympic set and power rack and listened to some advice(www.irishlifting.com )Thanks Mick. I followed programmes from magazines, listed to other opinions, surfed the web.

I couldn’t find a shortcut super programme/ TV advertised / magic diet or supplement anywhere. (Yeah tried all the super pump, testo booster, guranacaffeince super enhanced pre post during workout supplements, save your money). I now use simple whey protein or an all in one creatine mix post workout (TrinityTMU, Myprotein Hurricane(when I’m knackered)

There was no option but to start at the beginning and put in the discipline and work and workouts.
First the diet, like most I underestimated my portions, and the calories (yeah most chinese takeaways are around 2000 cals, not the 500 you try and kid yourself with). So I set up an account with www.foodfocus.co.uk around August 09, Now, I record everything, right down to the spoonful of manuka honey, and 1 square of chocolate that doesn’t really count.(but it does). Hence the food diary ( whoa, big eye opener here, couldn’t believe I was eating too much, It was only a sandwich and a bowl of pasta, judge). Now its protein shakes (mainly as meal replacements, or post workout, creatine now and again,) fresh vegetable and whole foods, very little processed food, takeaways now and again, hardly any beer, prob still too much wine, bottle over a weekend.

I worked out my basal metabolic rate online and went for a 10% reduction on that figure, (it’s a lifestyle change not a crash diet)over time. (it was around 2300 cals per day)(simple really the more exercise, the bigger the gap between your calorie intake and your BMR)

So from Jan 09 to June 09 I went to the gym 3 times a week, I did a mainly upper body/lower body split, did some cardio 30 to 45 mins on the concept 2 or treadmill and took 2 or three rest days a week. (this was the I know think I know what I am doing, but don’t really phase) And I got some ok results. I also realised through reading up and listening to valid opinions (the key is valid opinions:D) that I needed to be more structured.

I knew I didn’t want to get big, but lean and toned would be nice. So after lurking on threads, I decided to have a go at the strong lifts programme. I also invested in the Starting Strength book and DVD, www.amazon.com . So didn’t renew the gym membership, put the power rack in the garage.

So since last September, I train stronglifts 5X5 weights ,(started off with the madcow version, vanity is a terrible leveller, soon changed to the basic version) three times a week, I include bodyweight exercises.(it takes an hour) I do 30 minute cardio on top of this, and I use a kettlebell 16kg, (which really hurts, when it hits your shins)(it varies, Rowing, Running, Cycling), I always do one session of High intensity Training or Tabata protocol,( a week, lets not get ahead of ourselves). I do one other long slow endurance cardio at the weekend (50 mins runs or 90 minutes cycle), and I rest for 2 days.
The result, well every couple of months I take a week off, every couple of months, I plateau (realise how old I am ) and I step back a couple of workouts, and go again.

I have attached a copy of my workout spreadsheet, It’s just for you to have a look at, its not the best programme in the world, its stronglifts adapted to suit myself. So my rules are, a bit of discipline, a bit of intensity, a lot of fun, bit of research, some common-sense, (oh and don’t train through an injury, you are at a stage of your life where it only matters to you and your family how healthy you are.)

Sorry for the waffle this is the longest post I have ever put up,

P.S, big thanks to all the boardsies and forum mods who provide most of the information which have enabled me to make the changes I hoped for over the last year.

FatBastard123

Hi all,

Thanks sincerely for taking the time to give me your thoughts, feedback and encouragement.

Walter & CYMK - Your combined advice is indeed sound. Will definetly incorporate some weights and have already (today) started to focus on a healthier diet. My Missus looked at me like I had two heads when I got back from the gym this morning and turned down the offer of sausages and eggs in favour of low fat natural yoghurt with some of Lizi's Original Granola http://www.good-carb-food.co.uk/lizi-s-original-granola.html and a spoon of honey followed by two poached eggs on wholegrain brown bread and a cup of tea.

Normally I'd eat nothing else in anticipation of tonights Chinese or Indian but I had a Feta and Broccoli salad with roast chicken legs for lunch and a glass of Pepsi Max so won't be starving tonight and will cut back on the Chinese perhaps just going for a hot and sour soup & chicken fried rice which I know isn't good but is much better than what I'd normally have.

Cutting out the booze however is going to be a big challenge. I absolutely love going out once every two weeks or so and having a good skinfull of Guinness, I'm talking 8-10 pints, a real old fashioned night out. I can see myself not doing it as frequently and cutting back to drinking a few beers at home just one night a week but there's no way I could ever anticipate going out for a night and just having 1 or 2 pints. I'd rather not go out which might sound adolescent, stupid or make me look like some kind of binge drinking alco but that's honestly how I feel. I do love a good old session with the lads every couple of weeks. I somehow have to build that into my new lifestyle. Possible?

Redherring - Would love to take up a sport again and used to participate in Squash, Jiu Jitsu, 5 a side soccer etc until my early 30's when two super kids came along. They are now 9 & 5 and take up a lot of my spare time running them around to football, hurling, rugby, taekwondo, swimming and other activities + I run my own small business all of which means I really can't commit to any sort of a team or scheduled sport. I don't mind the gym really so hopefully I'm one of those who doesn't mind not having the social side of sport/excercise although I will see if I can build a few spin/boxcercise/circuit type classes into my routine.

Kite Runner - Where to start? What a post!! Really appreciate you sharing your experience and advice with me. Lot's of parallels with my own situation. I have a pal who followed the Turblulence Training programme (careful diet, lot's of weights and minimum cardio) and he was delighted with it, he lost a load of weight, toned up significantly, became fitter and most importantly of all he has stuck with it for a couple of years now.

You really seem to have nailed down the perfect routine/diet for yourself and are very happy with the results, well done.

I'm going to set up an account with Foofocus.co.uk as I'm sure I'll be surprised and motivated when I see my actual calorie intake Vs what I think I'm taking in.

In terms of cardio and weights I'm determined to get to 5k on the treadmill and I'll then start doing some road running in the mornings to build up to three 10k runs a year. The reason for this is I want to raise funds on an ongoing basis for a charity but that's a different story. If I can run 3 mornings a week and develop a weights programme 3 other days a week + do a bit of squash or a spin/boxcercise class from time to time and focus on a much better diet (with one 10 pints of Guinness session every two weeks!!!) I'm sure I'll get to 85kg eventually. If I got to 90kg by Xmas I'd be thrilled.

Thanks for sharing your training schedule, I'll review it and see if I can base something for myself on it.

Really appreciate all your advice and input lads, I can see what I need to do and I don't think it's unachievable, other than the love of a good old Guinness session from time to time!

Not too many Easter Egg's tomorrow now!!

FB123