Good diet to accompany excercise.

-Al-

Hey all,

I've been going to the gym for about 8 months now am looking for a diet to go with this. I try to go the gym 5 times a week, minimum 3 times and do about 1 hour 30 of cardio and weight training (not uber heavy weights however, just to tone up and build a bit of muscle as i lose the weight).

My biggest problem is diet though. I don't buy any stuff like crisps or chocolate and eat fruit whenever i want a snack but dinner is always a pain. At home right now id have some pasta, rice, veg for a stir fry etc, but id also buy oven chips,wedges,pizza - which id rather not eat but if im working late ill just take the lazy route and throw one of the above in the oven. I dont drink tea or coffee, or fizzy drinks, I would drink water or diluted orange/blackcurrant etc

I'm unsure about what kind of diet to do as i don't want to starve myself but don't want to eat more than I need either.

I work in IT, but my job keeps me fairly active (some days i'm in the office and other days i could be climbing a mountain or a telecoms mast) so don't want to be nibbling on air and have no energy to do anything.

Any suggestions?

tia

EileenG

If you are fit and well and have enough energy, and are not changing weight, then your present diet is providing enough calories for your lifestyle. So it's just a matter of improving them.

The easy way to do this is to switch from refined processed foods to fresh whole foods. So instead of pasta, go for boiled or mashed potatoes (I've discovered if you cut them up unpeeled, boil for about 10-13 minutes, drain off the water, pour in a little milk then mash, you get perfectly nice mash with no trouble) steak instead of microwave meal, eggs instead of cereal for breakfast.

sf80

Get plenty of protein to help you build muscle which will help you burn off the calories better. Pasta and bread are high carb, try to avoid them; health food shops have some nice pasta alternatives. There's a lot of sugar in some fruits too, maybe use something different for a snack (nuts?)

Bottle_of_Smoke

If you find you still end up eating pizza/wedges etc I'd increase your weightlifting, can get away with your diet slipping a bit more by doing heavy weights

murphthesmurf

To build muscle you would need to concentrate on increasing your protien, while still eating enough carbs and nutrients etc. Eggs are the best sour ce of protien you can eat, perticularly the egg white. So try and get those in your diet. Milk is a very close 2nd (whole milk as skimmed looses some of the goodness along with the fat), however, if you are trying to loose fat also then I wouldn't have too much of this. Good quality fish would be 3rd, eg not fish fingers. Then comes chicken and turkey. Turkey is great if wanting to eat protien as well as loosing fat, as it contains less fat than chicken while still containing the same amount of protien. Then comes the red meats like pork and beef. Beef contains a source of creatine, however if your wanting to lose fat then not too much red meat, and make sure its as lean as poss.
Devilled turkey is quick and simple, cut some turkey breasts into strips, take a bowl and put 2 teaspoons on mustard and 2 teaspoons of worcestershire sauce, mix up and put in the turkey breasts. Mix around to cover them, leave in fridge for 20-30 mins to soak up flavour, Then grill them. Nice with a jacket potatoe.
Or try stir frying some chicken with red peppers etc and a sauce, then put it into a wholemeal wrap. Stir frying is a very quick way of cooking if your short of time. Red peppers contain more vitamin c than oranges.
Best places to look are the bodybuilding websites, you may not want to look like them, but they know more about gaining muscle and losing fat than anyone else. Just dont try to follow the routines they do as it will NOT work. With the weights keep your reps around the 12 mark, this is ideal for building muscle as well as burning a few callories. Good luck, and keep at it, its not easy, but worth it.

cmyk

-Al- wrote: »

I try to go the gym 5 times a week, minimum 3 times and do about 1 hour 30 of cardio and weight training (not uber heavy weights however, just to tone up and build a bit of muscle as i lose the weight).

Toning up, essentially means trimming down your bodyfat really, so in order to do that you'll have to eat/drink less energy than you expend. Do you have an idea of your maintenance cals? and subsequently how many cals you're taking in? If not take a read of the fitness stickies, links to calculators there.

-Al-

Hey guys, sorry for not responding sooner and thanks for all the advice.

I suppose my main thing is that i've hit 'ye olde plateau' and im just not losing weight now so while time isn't on my side to stay longer in the gym then i need to eat less, but i dont want to starve myself and have to pull myself through the day with no energy.

CMYK: What do you mean by maintainence calories? I'm not sure of what im taking in. Although i'm gonna grab an app now and start today. Just need to stay disciplined and remember to use it. I'll check those stickies out too. Thanks.

EileenG

Maintenance calories are the amount you can eat without changing weight. There are all sorts of calculators which claim to work them out for you, but a rough guide is that about 2000 calories is maintenance for a moderately active woman, and 2500 for a man.

Athletes in training need more, older or inactive people need less.

There are calculators out there which produce funny numbers (I remember one which claimed I needed to eat 4000 cals a day because I cycle and was breastfeeding - yeah right) but you probably already know roughly how much you can eat, it's just a matter of putting a number on that.