Are my efforts not good enough?

theredletter

Hi guys,

I'm 5' 11'', around 13 stone (probably a little less), male. I have decided to try to get my weight down to 12 as 13 is a little overweight. I don't think I've much work to do, in that sense, but I just am finding it tough.

What I'm doing is more of a lifestyle change rather than a diet. I want to make small changes that I'm happy to do rather than cut bread out of my life forever (which I really enjoy). Here's what I've been doing.

I started bringing a lunch to work rather than going to O'Briens (yum!). I have porridge and fruit for breakfast. For lunch I usually have a small sandwich (the brown cakey bread, with a small bit of cheese and ham), two rice cakes, a yogurt, another piece of fruit and then for dinner I'll do my best to keep it healthy enough (vegetable stir fry/ fish and sweet potato chips/ chicken casserole etc.). I don't drink that much but when I do I'd drink vodka and whatever or have a few pints of Coors Lite.

Ex cerise wise I walk to work everyday (twenty minutes each way) and twice a week I go to the gym. I haven't been shown how to use any of the machines properly so I've been just going to the treatmills and going at around 10KM/H for 20 minutes. I love it, and am exhausted after!

Is this any good, any ideas what else I should do to lose a bit of weight and keep up the work?

Oryx

To me, your diet sounds ok, but I would wonder about your portion control and how many pints is a 'few'. Especially if youre posting here as youre not seeing the results you expect. Also, do you ever break out and eat junk? Its best to be honest about it.

If your exercise is limited to your walking and 20 mins on a treadmill a few times a week, in my opinion, no, youre not doing enough, or at least enough variety. You need to put in some weights, and some other cardio maybe. Now is the time to ask someone in the gym for a set routine to follow, or check out threads here for an idea of what to do.

theredletter

Oryx wrote: »

To me, your diet sounds ok, but I would wonder about your portion control and how many pints is a 'few'. Especially if youre posting here as youre not seeing the results you expect. Also, do you ever break out and eat junk? Its best to be honest about it.

If your exercise is limited to your walking and 20 mins on a treadmill a few times a week, in my opinion, no, youre not doing enough, or at least enough variety. You need to put in some weights, and some other cardio maybe. Now is the time to ask someone in the gym for a set routine to follow, or check out threads here for an idea of what to do.

Well, I definitely lost around three-four pounds, and after a week it went down pretty sharply. Since then it hasn't been going down.

To answer your question yes, of course I lash out with the junk food! Only very rarely. I eat that stuff in moderation, anyway. I never ate a lot of sweets (hence being 13 stone after not putting much effort in - i don't look overweight, i suppose!). In terms of drinking, a few is a few. I'd say no more than three pints a week (unless there was a wedding or something big on!). Not a mad drinker, ya see.

I know they say variety helps, but if I am completely dead after running that long is it not the same? I keep trying to push up the difficulty (started with 10 minutes, now I'm doing 20 minutes of running! which I'm impressed with to be honest, ha!).

Thanks!!

AntiVirus

There's nothing wrong with running for 20 minutes if you enjoy doing that. If you're running 3.3km in that time (10kmph) you'll burn the same amount of calories as if you walked 3.3km in 30mins or ran it in 15mins. It's all about the distance you cover.

When you finish you should rest for a few minutes and then try doing something else, eg weights, rowing etc.. Don't just stop after you've done your running.

GoldRush4821

It sounds pretty good to me I gotta say, of course improvements can be made but if you're not looking for drastic changes then you're on the right track. I'd agree that some sort of resistance training (using free weights would be better than the machines in any case) would be beneficial and that you could perhaps do interval training on the treadmills (30 seconds full pace - 1 minute jog - 20 seconds full pace - 45 seconds jog. that kinda thing) to further your goals.

Your goals are to lose 1 stone while changing lifestyle habits, which is much better than "dieting". The important thing is that you make your choices livable and not so that you end up after a couple of months reverting back to older habits. In this sense, your choices are fine for now, but things can always be improved, and the intensity of your workout can always be upped. But you have to ask yourself, do you want to sacrifice the things you enjoy just to have an extraordinary body? From your post, it seems like you just want to get healthier and look a bit better, so stick with it and you should soon see results. If not, you can always come back and ask for more advice. Good luck!

theredletter

Thanks for all the fantastic advice. Today I went for the 20 minutes and did over 3.5KM. Then I decided to go on the bikes but I was wrecked. I always feel like a fool just standing around to rest. I just sat on the bike and then did 1KM before I headed home.

For now I just want to look a tiny bit better and generally feel better (I've stress issues so running feels so good to me even if it kills me!). I will defintely let ye know how I get on. I just don't want to go back to being a mess like I was before this. My diet was always so-so, but I did zero exercise. I just want to maintain it. I've been doing this for nearly a month now, so hoping I get hooked and eventually up the intensity and eventually get a good body, but for now I am focused on studying, eating well and exercising!

Thanks a lot for the useful advice, and if there is anymore go for it!

R

AntiVirus

theredletter wrote: »

Thanks for all the fantastic advice. Today I went for the 20 minutes and did over 3.5KM. Then I decided to go on the bikes but I was wrecked. I always feel like a fool just standing around to rest. I just sat on the bike and then did 1KM before I headed home.

You've already improved since you last went to the gym, good work!

Now next time you go try to run 3.6km in 20mins and do 2km on the bike. No one said getting fit was easy

I know it’s easy for me to tell you that you shouldn't feel uncomfortable standing about but obviously you feel different. There are a few things you can do. When you've finished you're run, set the speed to a slow walking pace and just walk on the treadmill to cool down, some people do this for 10mins. Or even head into the toilets for a break. Sit down and mess about with your iPod for a few minutes. Everyone takes a break in the gym. Good luck

Inspector Coptoor

I think you're starting this off the right way.
make small changes and keep adding to the small changes instead of changing everything at once and making an epic fail.

Regarding diet, watch your portion sizes especially.
Use smaller plates when plating up your dinner, make sure to chew food thoroughly, really savour it and enjoy it and you'll feel fuller sooner.
Try to calculate how much protein you are taking in per day and try to get it up to 1g of protein per pound of body weight, so for you at ~13 stone, you need to be taking in about 180g of protein.

With the running on the treadmill, good start, I wouldnt be a fan of running at one pace (e.g 10kph for 20 mins), id be more a fan of sprints, going all out, recovery time and going again, hard done on a treadmill but you could always do it in a park or an a GAA pitch, especially now the evenings are getting longer.

At some stage in the next few weeks, ask someone in the gym to show you how to squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, how to do proper push ups, pull ups and dips.
My advice would be to do 10-15 mins of weights and then hit the treadmill for your 20 mins run,

Introduce the weights slowly but surely.

Cardio only will make you look better in your clothes.
Cardio and weights will make you look better in the nip