Critque wanted: 25yo trying to slim and tone

Stabshauptmann

Background: 25yo male, 6ft (185cm), 13.5 Stone (85kg) looking to lose weight & tone stomach

Hi Guys,
I have been out of college a year and gone from a 32" waist to a 36". Also I have 0 fitness / stamina any more. Combination of no exercise and bad diet - and I want that to change.

So heres what I've been doing
Diet
8.30am Breakfast: Porridge with low fat milk and fruit, OR yoghurt with berries seeds and nuts

12am Lunch: Turkey with salad (usually kidney beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers and boiled baby potatoes). I'd say I make fairly big salads.

5pm Tea: Salmon brown bread sandwich, OR yoghurt OR Soup

8pm Dinner: Roast Chicken OR Salmon, seasoned with spices and herbs (never any sauce) with brown rice and frozen veg.

* Depending on work sometimes I take my dinner at 6pm and tea at 9pm
I also probably eat 3 or 4 pieces of fruit a day

Theres no chocolate, no crisps, no chips. But my vices, I go out for dinner twice a week, [Edit: and I do go out 3 nights a week though Im gonna stick to 2 or 3 whiskey and waters a night - much better than the 25 pints of cider I was drinking anyway!

I think I eat about 2900 Cals a day and have approx 21.2% body fat]

Exercise
Morning: 20 situps, 10 reps, another 10 situps (diff type), another 10 reps, 15min cycle.

Evening: 15min cycle, 10 reps * 3 sets, 10 situps. Twice a week I also do a 25min run.

I exercise about 1 - 1.5hrs a day, plus 50mins for the 2 runs, but maybe I miss one or two days, so lets say 7hours a week


I've been doing the above for just over a month now, and I havent lost a single KG or look one iota slimmer of feel any better

I'm getting bored with just chicken or salmon for dinner, and very frustrated not to be making any progress.

Red Cortina

Lot more experienced folk who post here can give you some advice but will add my 2c.

Have you read the stickies yet? Think they are really useful.

I would say that the number of pints you are consuming each week has probably got something to do with the fact that you aren't seeing any progress. Is there anyway that you could just go out for pints on a Saturday?

And finally you will burn more calories by doing some resistance training or interval training than you will with steady state cardio so I would explore these if I were you.

Best of luck:D

BossArky

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

Theres no chocolate, no crisps, no chips. But my vices, I go out for dinner twice a week, and I'd have 10pints of beer a week (3pints Tuesday, 3 Thursday, 4 Saturday. It used to be 25pints of cider over 5 nights; cutting back as much as I have is as far as I think I can go right now).

What are you drinking? Let's assume there is 200 calories per pint.

• 200 cals x10 pints per week = 2000 cals from alcohol per week.
• 3500 cals = 1 pound of fat. If you are eating at maintenance levels then the additional alcohol will pile 2.28 pounds of fat (about 1kg) of fat onto you per 4 weeks. Food for thought.
• Moral of the story --> drink less.

Use www.fitday.com to figure out calories in/out.

Stabshauptmann

Thanks for the input.
I did read around on this forum before putting my little regieme into action. My diet, though probably very basic and obvious to posters here, took a bit of research for me and I'd like to thank all the posters in the Fitness; the Basics (inc. Diet & Nutrition) sticky.

I read Transform's Beginner progam (sample) thread but I simply dont have that many hours in a week between work and study so my routine is based around quickly doing some weights before I cycle to work and again when I cycle home.

I've googled Resistance training, is it the same as strength training?
So basically I should change from 10reps*3sets to 1-3 reps*5 sets (100% rpm)?

I will incorporate interval training into my running. Thanks for the advice.

And guys please dont focus on the - oh he drinks, lets just place all the blame on that. I care about my health and my appearance, but I'm not going to give up all my friends / social life to achieve it. I dont think its the reason I've seen no results, I have dramatically changed my diet, including a massive reduction in the amount I drink.

Thanks BossArky for the illustration. I thought I was making a big difference going from Cider to Beer. I think I'll move to spirits; they seem to have far fewer calories http://www.nutracheck.co.uk/calories/calories_in_alcohol/Alcohol.html

billybigunz

Morning: 20 situps, 10 reps, another 10 situps (diff type), another 10 reps, 15min cycle.

Evening: 15min cycle, 10 reps * 3 sets, 10 situps. Twice a week I also do a 25min run.

Waste of time. Do some proper exercise, big compound lifts.
Add some speed and agility training rather than a straightforward cycle or run.

Stabshauptmann

billybigunz wrote: »

Waste of time. Do some proper exercise, big compound lifts.
Add some speed and agility training rather than a straightforward cycle or run.

I should of stressed that Im a beginner; you gave me three words - thats not enough for me to make a routine.

Everything I just googled on compound lifts related to mass gain. My aim is to lose weight and tone. How do I use compound lifts to meet my aims?

What I need is to make the most efficient use of my time. I can devote plenty of time on a Sunday but for the rest of the week I really only have 45mins max to spare.

PeakOutput

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

I should of stressed that Im a beginner; you gave me three words - thats not enough for me to make a routine.

the stickies has loads of information on routines and such

My aim is to lose weight and tone.

to 'tone' you need to gain muscle and lose fat forget about losing 'weight'. use the stickies to estimate your body fat percentage its probably over 20/25% then pick a goal of getting it into the teens, then if you want the low teens

you will then be in significantly better shape then you are now


you can achieve this by eating better(4/5 meals a day as explained in the stickies) doing weights sessions with compund lifts and doing hiit cardio(high intensity for short bursts basically)

How do I use compound lifts to meet my aims?

by doing them

seriously though you are not going to become a body builder by doing some conmpund lifts you are going to become 'toned' assuming your diet is right

What I need is to make the most efficient use of my time. I can devote plenty of time on a Sunday but for the rest of the week I really only have 45mins max to spare.

45mins a day or 45mins in the entire week? if 45 mins is all the time you have to work out in one entire week A) your lieing to yourself about how much time you have you dont want the results enough to put in the work BUT you could get a good bit of the way there with a very good diet but then you would have to cut back on your pints significantly

for what you are looking for unless you have a very very good diet that little excersise is simply not going to cut it

if its 45 mins a day or every two day you have then you are in business

edit; you can still go out 3/4 nights a week easy peasy but do you need to drink every time you went out? if for example you only drank on the saturday nights you would probably feel significantly better during the week that you could get up and hour earlier and hit the gym 3 days of the week. you dont need to be a pioneer to be in good shape far from it it just makes things harder than it needs to be

billybigunz

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

I should of stressed that Im a beginner; you gave me three words - thats not enough for me to make a routine.

Everything I just googled on compound lifts related to mass gain. My aim is to lose weight and tone. How do I use compound lifts to meet my aims?

What I need is to make the most efficient use of my time. I can devote plenty of time on a Sunday but for the rest of the week I really only have 45mins max to spare.

I wouldn't be looking to lose weight now if I were you. You need to shift some fat but add a bit of muscle.

If you really can't make the time then you might struggle if you can't go to a gym. Others could advise you on what home exercises you can work on but they won't be as effective. I'd leave the situps and concentrate on pressups, pullups, chair dips, star jumps and variations on the above.

Stabshauptmann

Thanks very much billybigunz and PeakOutput.

Its 45mins a day, but all day Sunday if needs be. I think home exercise is the way to go because I'd be loosing 20mins minimum going to the gym - half my available time.

Using the website recommended by BossArky, I think I'm eating 2900 Cals a day (exl alcohol)
(Fat: 78.1g, Carbs 435.2g, Prot 136.3g)

Body Fat= 21.2% (estimated by http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/).


What I've taken away from this thread so far
* Make my aim fat burning, not weight loss

* Devote more time to weights. Do compound lifts and strength training
- higher weights & less reps

* Replace my 3km jog with a 2km interval type run.

* Add pressups, pullups, chair dips, star jumps etc to the routine.

* Less alcohol (maybe fewer calories generally). I dont feel I can go on a night out and not have at least 2 drinks, being sober around drunk people is insufferable. My current consumption levels (3pints) dont affect me getting up / leave me hungover.

Thanks guys, keep it all coming!

PeakOutput

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

Thanks very much billybigunz and PeakOutput.

Its 45mins a day, but all day Sunday if needs be. I think home exercise is the way to go because I'd be loosing 20mins minimum going to the gym - half my available time.

with 45mins a day you can make serious progress

if your doing stuff at home i would say pull up bar should be on your purchase list and although iv never used one maybe a heavy kettlebell??(one of th emore experienced guys will correct me if that wont be of any use. that way you do a large variation of bodyweight movements with the pull up bar and use the kettlebell for their versions of the squat and deadlift and their versions of the oly lifts all at home

20 mins of a high intensity crossfit type workout with the above followed by 20 mins high intensity short intervals of running, once a day or once every two days should have serious gains but again there are more experienced guys who will ahve to give you the ins and outs of each

last but by no means least is make the diet as close to perfect as you can and you can enjoy your pints guilt free