Why aren't six packs made in my kitchen?!

Shane732

As ever I'm trying to get somewhere near the body I'm looking for - a big part of this is a six pack.

I'm currently working on my fitness level and trying to build muscle etc... but as many people say a six pack is built in the kitchen.

My current diet is far too high in carbs and sugar. I'd really appreciate some suggestion on my diet. Diet as follows:

7:00

Two slices of brown bread with jam and butter. A cup of tea with 2-3 tea spoons of sugar.

Then occasionally at 8:30 I have another cup of tea with 2-3 tea spoons of sugar. (This can easily be cut out and will be going forward)

13:00

Brown bread sandwich with butter, small bit of mayonnaise, chicken (either cold chicken or a hot chicken fillet), lettuce and tomato.

Bottle of water

18:00

A cup of tea with 2-3 tea spoons of sugar. Usually a bar of some sort. Again this can easily be cut out.

19:00

Dinner - eg. Beef, potato (usually 2 potatoes either mashed, roasted or boiled) and one veg.

20:00

Tea with 2-3 spoons of sugar.

I'm looking for suggestions on how I could alter my diet to improve it. I'm allergic to nuts and not a huge veg fan either!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

FYI I'm currently 10 stone 10 pounds (c. 68 kg), 5' 8-9". I'm not looking to loose weight, I'm more looking to change the make up of my body. I'm aware that in order to do this I need to up my fitness etc... I suppose really what I'm looking for is a diet that will promote the work I'm doing in the gym.

Thanks in advance!

Fizman

The glaringly obvious ones are the excess bread and sugar in your diet. I'd suggest cutting back to one spoon of sugar in a cup of tea. I have a VERY sweet tooth as well and attempted recently to go cold turkey but find I just stick half a spoon in and it keeps me happy!

Are you fond of porridge? A bowl of that with a nice blob of honey on top gets me started and along with a banana keeps me going for quite a while. It's a pity you can't have nuts, but I'd suggest having a look at something like low-fat cottage cheese. Whenever I'm disciplined enough to keep it in my lunchtime routine I find it works wonders for reducing bodyfat.

brianthebard

Shane732 wrote: »

FYI I'm currently 10 stone 10 pounds (c. 68 kg), 5' 8-9". I'm not looking to loose weight, I'm more looking to change the make up of my body. I'm aware that in order to do this I need to up my fitness etc... I suppose really what I'm looking for is a diet that will promote the work I'm doing in the gym.

Thanks in advance!

You are trying to loose weight you just don't realise it yet. Fat doesn't turn into muscle, so in order to have a six pack you need to loose fat.

Shane732

brianthebard wrote: »

You are trying to loose weight you just don't realise it yet. Fat doesn't turn into muscle, so in order to have a six pack you need to loose fat.

No I'm not trying to loose weight. I'm trying to loose fat and gain muscle. I'm aware fat doesn't turn into muscle. I'd actually prefer to be heavier (like 75 kg) but muscle.

It is possible to gain muscle while loosing fat, right?

brianthebard

Yes and no. You will be able to lose fat quicker than gain muscle, so short term at least you will trying to loose weight. But either way your diet is not designed for weight or fat loss, and while I think you seem underweight to me you will have to lose fat for abs to show.

Shane732

brianthebard wrote: »

Yes and no. You will be able to lose fat quicker than gain muscle, so short term at least you will trying to loose weight. But either way your diet is not designed for weight or fat loss, and while I think you seem underweight to me you will have to lose fat for abs to show.

You think my weight is underweight for my height? I'm 21 too btw.

I would have thought my weight is fairly normal for someone my height and age?

Shane732

Fizman wrote: »

The glaringly obvious ones are the excess bread and sugar in your diet. I'd suggest cutting back to one spoon of sugar in a cup of tea. I have a VERY sweet tooth as well and attempted recently to go cold turkey but find I just stick half a spoon in and it keeps me happy!

Are you fond of porridge? A bowl of that with a nice blob of honey on top gets me started and along with a banana keeps me going for quite a while. It's a pity you can't have nuts, but I'd suggest having a look at something like low-fat cottage cheese. Whenever I'm disciplined enough to keep it in my lunchtime routine I find it works wonders for reducing bodyfat.

I do eat porridge from time to time but tend to have far too much sugar with it, which kind of defeats the purpose! Unfortunately I hate cottage cheese...

Bottle_of_Smoke

Stop having sugar in your tea. You get used to it without really quickly.

Sugar is high GI and will convert to fat. You're taking around 200-250 calories in sugar|(half a pound a week).

7:00

Two slices of brown bread with jam and butter. A cup of tea with 2-3 tea spoons of sugar.

Then occasionally at 8:30 I have another cup of tea with 2-3 tea spoons of sugar. (This can easily be cut out and will be going forward)


Have some scrambled eggs instead with one slice of brown bread.


13:00

Brown bread sandwich with butter, small bit of mayonnaise, chicken (either cold chicken or a hot chicken fillet), lettuce and tomato.

Bottle of water


Lose the bread, have some salad instead

18:00

A cup of tea with 2-3 tea spoons of sugar. Usually a bar of some sort. Again this can easily be cut out.


Have an extra meal here. Or even a tin of tuna/protein shake(low fat milk)


19:00

Dinner - eg. Beef, potato (usually 2 potatoes either mashed, roasted or boiled) and one veg.

How big are the potatoes? Go with brown rice instead. Or maybe just have one potato

Lantus

If your really looking to get a six pack then I suggest you get your reading hat on first and foremost. There are loads of books out there that can help and the amount of knowledge and information you will need about nutrition and exercise is going to require youto make a big leap. Trust me I am doing the same currently. Depending on your body composition right now this could be a journey of months or in my case years.

You will need to lower your body fat % slowly over time. If you don't know what it is or how to measure it now is the time to find out and start recording it so you can track your progress.

The key to a low body fat % is is good nutrition. Eating 'clean' which is what body builders refer to as food as close to it's natural state as possible. Eating frequently every 2 to 3 hours and incorporating exercise into your life, lots of cardio to burn the fat and resistance training to develop muscle mass.

You can say goodbye to all those cups of sugar with some tea in them! Refined sugars, fried foods, processed foods etc. Think about fruits, lean proteins, vegetables in their natural state, wholegrains for pasta and bread etc. In terms of bread make sure you get wholemeal 100%. Brown bread can be many things, even white dyed brown to make it look healthy!

Determining your required energy input and then adjusting for exercise so your calorie intake is correct and of that the right ratio of proteins, complex carbs and essential fats in every meal is also correct. Eating less carbs in the evening, cycling high and low days for calorie intake (called zig zagging.) knowing your body type and how it responds to food types.

It's impossible to tell you how totally in a post like this and as everyone is different you may need less or more or these techniques and more not listed you don't yet know about.

It isn't impossible but it does take discipline and dedication.

--Kaiser--

The only way to have a six-pack is to lose weight and to bring your body fat % lower than 15%. Ab exercises will make your abdominals more defined, but if there is a thick layer of fat there they won't be visible.

I would agree with most of the advice here, no sugar with tea, replace bread with eggs etc..

Sapsorrow

Since going lower carb I've developed great definition in my abs and my waist line has shrunk an inch or two (it's 26inches now which is what I was when I was about 13 years old so I'm delighted! ), which is bizarre considering I wasn't even trying to lose weight and I'm neither skinny or fit, in fact I'm more unfit at the minute than I have been in years so it is possible to achieve a lot with diet alone. There's now way I've been eating less calories either so I reckon it's down to my insulin levels. Try easing up on the carbs, give up all the added sugar and crap like that and you'll start seeing results.

Mellor

Cut the bread and sugar, basically all carbs. Don't bother with advice like above suggesting to swap in brown rice, it's just as bad, even worse than some White rice varieties.

You don't want to lose weight, the reality is you have to.
It is possible to do both along side each other, eat big when training, big deficit when not training, but the reality is this is too hard, it's just shorter cut and bulk periods anyway.
A better option is the normal route, weight loss diet, get body fat to 10-15% then bulk up to desired weight. You might need to cut again after this as a little fat gain is expected

Shane732

Lantus wrote: »

If your really looking to get a six pack then I suggest you get your reading hat on first and foremost. There are loads of books out there that can help and the amount of knowledge and information you will need about nutrition and exercise is going to require youto make a big leap. Trust me I am doing the same currently. Depending on your body composition right now this could be a journey of months or in my case years.

You will need to lower your body fat % slowly over time. If you don't know what it is or how to measure it now is the time to find out and start recording it so you can track your progress.

The key to a low body fat % is is good nutrition. Eating 'clean' which is what body builders refer to as food as close to it's natural state as possible. Eating frequently every 2 to 3 hours and incorporating exercise into your life, lots of cardio to burn the fat and resistance training to develop muscle mass.

You can say goodbye to all those cups of sugar with some tea in them! Refined sugars, fried foods, processed foods etc. Think about fruits, lean proteins, vegetables in their natural state, wholegrains for pasta and bread etc. In terms of bread make sure you get wholemeal 100%. Brown bread can be many things, even white dyed brown to make it look healthy!

Determining your required energy input and then adjusting for exercise so your calorie intake is correct and of that the right ratio of proteins, complex carbs and essential fats in every meal is also correct. Eating less carbs in the evening, cycling high and low days for calorie intake (called zig zagging.) knowing your body type and how it responds to food types.

It's impossible to tell you how totally in a post like this and as everyone is different you may need less or more or these techniques and more not listed you don't yet know about.

It isn't impossible but it does take discipline and dedication.

Thanks for the post - my bodyfat % is roughly 13% at the moment

Gaz

How are you measuring your bodyfat ? Calipers are best.

If you really are 13% then you dont have much weight to lose to get your abs showing, usually sub 10% for a male. However at your weight and height you will look very skinny, sure you will have abs but who cares if you dont have the arms, shoulders, chest and legs to go with them ?

Work on putting on some mass, you want to be training hard and consuming more calories than you need (say 500 a day), this is a slow process but with determination you could easily add say 10 - 15 kilos in a year.

Then you go on a calorie restrictive diet, up the cardio , keep hitting the weights and burn off the excess fat.

Good luck.

mloc

I reckon you'd want to be about 75 kg to not look "skinny" at 5 foot 10. That's about a stone heavier than you are now.

I'd get there, or go slightly higher, through hard, heavy training and then look at reeling in the calories to get rid of the extra fat and reveal the extra muscle.

IMO, having a 6-pack at sub 11 stone is bit pointless for a male at your height.

--Kaiser--

^^^^^^

It's quite possible to gain muscle while also burning fat, despite popular beliefs

Shane732

Thanks for all the posts.

Just in reply to a few comments -

Yes I use a calipers to measure bodyfat. My problem is that I'm about 13% overall body fat but I'm 19% in my stomach. My last bodyfat stats were taken by a well known personal trainer around these parts.

Re the no point in having a six pack at sub 11? Why do you say that?? Surely no matter what weight you are it's better to have a six pack showing rather than a horrible lump of fat!!

I would seriously like to read up more on this so I fully know what I'm on about foodwise..... Does anyone have recommendations on some good reading material?

From tomorrow I'm cutting sugar down to one in my tea with the hope of cutting it out all together.

Re the bread - should I cut out all bread or just one portion?

I'm picking up the training again from tomorrow. It's a fu**king bitch trying to get into good shape but I'm going to do it!!!!

Cheers for the help....