diet revision needed to reduce body fat and increase muscle

undergroundvibe

Hi All


im a 6ft 3 male weight 96kg, body fat % at the minute is around 23% BMI is something like 26%

i joined the gym last year after a few years out, lost about 2 stone through healthy eating and doing weights 4 times a week

im looking to fine tune my diet in order to put on muscle and reduce my fat percentage

i never seem to have much strenght to increase my weights in the gym also, i have put on muslce in the last year that is noticable for me but someone else deffo wouldnt consider me muscley

anyway, my curretn diet is

7.30 am every morning small bowl of bran flakes, low fat milk, one spoon of sugar

10.30 am every morning a rivita like crack with tuna onion and mayoneese

1pm a bowl of weigh watcher soup ( ingredients include tomatoes, basil, peppars, onion, garlic, carrots etc)

3.30 pm another cracker and tuna, (prob about 2/3 a tin of tuna over the whole day)

6.30 pm dinner, it varies everyday, twice a week it will be a chicken stir fry (peppars, carrots, onions, mushrooms etc) with white noodle, a handfull of noodles but a very big serving of the stirfry

other nights could be steak and a small portion of potatoes with onions, peppars and mushrooms OR chicken tikka with white noodles.

8.30pm protein shake if ive been to the gym.

weekends are less stict, have the same breakfast, dont have the tuna cracker snacks, and usual have a few bars on sat nite and sunday night

Bottle_of_Smoke

Generally its next to impossible to gain muscle whilst losing fat.

What most people do is lift heavy and pretty much eat everything they see. Keep themselves full at all times.

Doing this will maximise the amount of muscle they grow from weightlifting. Though they will also gain fat.

Then they cut the carbs down and reduce their overall calorie intake and continue training to lose the fat. You lose weight very quickly when you have muscle built up.

Lantus

Looking at your food list I wouldn't be sure your actually eating enough. Check your calories via a cal calculator (theres some in the stickies.)

Try to eat more during the start of the day and taper down calorie wise towards the evening.

Try to eat less refined sugars and packaged foods.

Try to stay consistent over the weekend (I know it's hard!) but it will make a real difference. Allow your self a cheat meal (not day) once a weeek.

Introduce some cardio as well as resistance to start burning fat!

If your using BF% then ignore BMI as your already doing resistance training for a while now. I have a BF% of 16/17% but a BMI of 28 (so virutally obese even though I'm male and have a 31" waist.) It's a great measure for someone who has wondered off the street but for those already on an exercise routine of resistance training it should be treated with extreme caution as muscle density is not a factor BMI can cope with.

Be consistent. Set goals and measure your progress for each training session. Slow and steady....

undergroundvibe

Lantus wrote: »

Looking at your food list I wouldn't be sure your actually eating enough. Check your calories via a cal calculator (theres some in the stickies.)

Try to eat more during the start of the day and taper down calorie wise towards the evening.

thanks for the replies, in relation to the above quote, i should be eating 2600 calories a day according the counter, what would you suggest i add to my diet?

if i wasnt eating enough would it not have shown up by now?

i find it hard to move up weights in the gym especially for upper body anything i can do to change that?

--Kaiser--

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

Generally its next to impossible to gain muscle whilst losing fat.

I'd have to disagree with this from personal experience. The last time I was training for an MMA competition I not only put on muscle all over (not huge bulk you understand, but definite growth) but also brought my body fat down to around 11% (was probably around 15%)

undergroundvibe

undergroundvibe wrote: »

7.30 am every morning small bowl of bran flakes, low fat milk, one spoon of sugar

Bran flakes are mostly sugar and then sugar on top
have porridge or eggs or something more substantial

--Kaiser--

To qualify my above post i suppose I'll to put up a diet/exercise regime;

Diet
Was eating a bowl of porridge or omelette/full Irish for breakfast every day (before I gave up grains).

Meat and two or three veg for lunch ( from work canteen)

Chicken/Beef/Pork Stirfry with lots of veg and rice for dinner

Glass of milk before bed

Training
I was MMA training at least three times a week (up to five)

Was also playing 5-a-side soccer once to thrice a week (hour long game)

Bottle_of_Smoke

undergroundvibe wrote: »

thanks for the replies, in relation to the above quote, i should be eating 2600 calories a day according the counter, what would you suggest i add to my diet?

if i wasnt eating enough would it not have shown up by now?

i find it hard to move up weights in the gym especially for upper body anything i can do to change that?

Eating more should help.

This is probably a placebo but works well for me. Take a weight you can just about lift for 8 reps. Then the next time you go in attempt to lift a higher weight for just 1-3 reps. So say you could bench 50kg for 8 reps, have a go at 70kg for 3.

You should at least get one, this may make it at least seem easier to go back and do 55 for 8 reps

(MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SPOTTER IF ATTEMPTING THIS)


For diet I'd make a protein shake in the morning and use it as the milk for your bran. Use half fat milk instead of low fat.

HAve some bread with your soup. Maybe get a normal brand instead of weightwatchers

Nuts are a great source of fat and protein, have them as handy snacks.

Drink a protein shake every night, not just when you train

Bottle_of_Smoke

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

I'd have to disagree with this from personal experience. The last time I was training for an MMA competition I not only put on muscle all over (not huge bulk you understand, but definite growth) but also brought my body fat down to around 11% (was probably around 15%)

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

To qualify my above post i suppose I'll to put up a diet/exercise regime;

Diet
Was eating a bowl of porridge or omelette/full Irish for breakfast every day (before I gave up grains).

Meat and two or three veg for lunch ( from work canteen)

Chicken/Beef/Pork Stirfry with lots of veg and rice for dinner

Glass of milk before bed

Training
I was MMA training at least three times a week (up to five)

Was also playing 5-a-side soccer once to thrice a week (hour long game)

I know it is possible but I think only just. You were eating clean and doing a lot of training, both cardio(football) and strength(MMA)

With the OP weight training three times a week I think it would be very difficult tbh.

--Kaiser--

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

I know it is possible but I think only just. You were eating clean and doing a lot of training, both cardio(football) and strength(MMA)

With the OP weight training three times a week I think it would be very difficult tbh.

To be honest I was lucky in that I didn't have a lot of fat to lose either

undergroundvibe

ok so far im going to have porrige in the morning instead of bran flakes, and have my protein shake every night regardless of whether i train or not


ill give this a go for a few weeks to see if theres any change in strength or body fat, if things remain the same or better ill add in brown bread with my soup at lunch time and monitor that too, its hard looking at people eat sambos every lunch time when im stuck with soup

is there any good cook books out there for tasty healthy eating options? could start to vary my diet a bit more then, im a fussy enough eater

thanks all for help so far

Mellor

undergroundvibe wrote: »

7.30 am every morning small bowl of bran flakes, low fat milk, one spoon of sugar
sugar and cardboard, with a spood of sugar. Oats and egss are far better
10.30 am every morning a rivita like crack with tuna onion and mayoneese
Rivita, isn't very good, dispite its image, tuna is fina, but mayo is prob something you could cut out. Try getting a tuna with tomato, or other flavours
1pm a bowl of weigh watcher soup ( ingredients include tomatoes, basil, peppars, onion, garlic, carrots etc)
WW soup is made by Heinz, its no different to their other soups. Not really too bad
3.30 pm another cracker and tuna, (prob about 2/3 a tin of tuna over the whole day)
I'd drop the cracker and have more tuna tbh

6.30 pm dinner, it varies everyday, twice a week it will be a chicken stir fry (peppars, carrots, onions, mushrooms etc) with white noodle, a handfull of noodles but a very big serving of the stirfry
chicken good, veg, good, noodles, not good. portion size is really the important part.
other nights could be steak and a small portion of potatoes with onions, peppars and mushrooms OR chicken tikka with white noodles.
Chicken tikka from a jar isn't good. Potatoes, well it depends on portion size.
8.30pm protein shake if ive been to the gym.
keep this, don't be afraid to have on everyday

The problem is, there are no real good and bad foods.
Rice, pasta, noodles, potatoes are all fine in moderation. But most people eat far too big portions. Next time you are making some, weight them before you cook, and work out cals. You'll be surprised.

Same with the crackers, they aren't great, and have no real benefits, but if they are a tool for getting some tuna in daily then they are ok imo. Extra tuna would be better.

At the end of the day, it comes down to portion size. Even you fix your diet, to what was suggested here, you'll still not lose weight if you are eating big portions

undergroundvibe

well in thinking of replacing the noobles with brown rice, i believe that may be better

i dont think i could cut out the mayo to be honest, im not a big fish fan and can just about stomach the taste of tuna, when mixed with mayo and red pepper or onion

the soup is home made


the chicken tikka is from a jar, not good but i like it and i have to enjoy the odd meal,

the diet above got me from 30% body fat down to 18% last year so its fairly good for me, i just need to fine tune it now to keep myself below the 20% mark constantly, i have a sweet tooth which makes it very hard


has anyone any healthy meal/snack suggestions?

TommyKnocker

I don't mind tuna plain but would usually mix it with a little mayonnasie. However I make my own rather than buy the readymade stuff and I think it si healthy enough

Olive oil, egg yolks and a little dijon mustard.

I would usually make about 1lt every weekend and keep it in the fridge. And mixing by hand gives a good arm workout