Does my diet and exercise look ok?

Deedsie

Hi all, yet another please tell me where I am going wrong thread.

I am 27, 179cm tall and i weigh 82.2kg as of this morning. I'd actually like to drop my weight back to 76kg. I have a fairly substantial amount of belly fat id like to be rid of. I'm not bothered about a six pack or anything like that. I just want to be healthier, get rid of the belly. I have only started exercising again two weeks ago and I am now gonna try tackle the nutrition side of things.

I can't run due to an injury to my Achilles tendon. So struggling to find any cardio exercise suitable. Perhaps swimming could be included. I have my own squat rack and bench at home, so Monday, Wednesday and Friday I am doing the stronglifts programme.

My most recent lifts 5x5:

Squat 67.5kg, I only started to squat Monday due to injury. Back at it properly now.

Bench press 70kg
Deadlift 100kg
Overhead Press 40 Kg
Barbell rows 25 Kg
Dips, chin Ups, pull ups.

I got some advice on my diet over on the N&D page yesterday. My diet is in bold, the advice follows. If anyone has any additions to make I'd love to hear them.


Porridge 7:45..

there aint a whole lot wrong with porridge but 2 things to watch out for, one is portion size, i have porridge every morning but while im cutting fat its 30g and no more, you might be shocked at how small 30g is but its all ya need!!, the other is milk, a lot of people tend to make porridge with milk but ya want to shred fat so make sure its with water. Also porridge in all its goodness doesnt have a whole lot of protein in it, you need your protein to sustain your muscle to keep the fat fires burning, so 30g of porridge with some mixed berries, a spoon of cottage cheese and some eggs is a good start for breakfast, try not to associate cutting fat with not eating...you need your food to burn fat

10:00 scone/strawberry jam..

now you dont need me to tell you this aint good, are you in work when you get this? 10am scone and jam seems to be a habit rather than a requirement, break that habit and start looking at good snacks to have, a fav of mine is apple slices with meridian butter on them...damn tasty!!

12:30 sandwich..

not a lot of detail here but lets presume its bread lets also presume your gonna quit bread, in my own opinion if you eat soft and doughy bread your body will be soft and doughy!!, try a lean turkey salad or indeed a salad with a choice or small mix of turkey\salmon...i quite like herring...but not for everyone....but stay well clear of bread or your fat loss is going to be damn tough!



3:00 fruit banana/apple, few cashew nuts..

are these salted cahews?, i cant do cashews cause if i start on a bag i dont stop, also stick to the apple rather than banana, banana's although fruit can have high sugar content and this would have an effect on your fat loss!!, you could go for apple and a whey/casein shake instead



5:30 dinner e.g 4 chicken breasts, 2 peppers, carrot mixed with uncle bens sweet Thai chilli sauce.
This is dinner prepared for two days. No rice with it......

The no rice is good!! 4 chicken breasts might me a bit much for fat loss depending on your current weight etc, and theres not enough greens....get your green beans and your brocalli going and get them into ya!!!! i would imagine 1 chicken breast...or better yet Turkey steak...with the rest of your plate as greens should be good!! the thai chilli sauce i'd stay well clear of....a general rule of thumb is to steer clear of packets of anything.....if you can kill it or grow it...then your good!!


7:00 after training, protein shake made with low fat milk & creatine.

9:30 tea and a couple of biscuits* obviously should be cut out, but talk about a habit of a lifetime.......yeah its a tough one all right..and its horible when the sweet tooth kicks in and its hard to control..what i do is i get a box of protein bars, and cut them all in half and freeze them, i have one half a day as a treat and this keeps me on the straight and narrow, no cravings at all!!! when frozen it takes ages to get through a half so it would go the distence with your biscuits

Deedsie

I am thinking of changing the 10:00 tea, scone and jam to; Tea, granola bar and maybe a natural yogurt with some berries.

greenman667

OK - I'll help you to help yourself.

first thing to do is to work out how many kcal that all is - use fitday for this.
Then break that down to protein, carb, fat ratios

You'll see where you're going wrong if it doesn't fit into the 40/40/20 model

That said, if you've started exercising in the last 2 weeks (weights especially) then this hasn't made a difference yet - I'd see what happens here in 6 more weeks

Deedsie

Just to add, my goal is to go from a pudgy 82.2 Kg to strong hard 77 Kg.

How long would it take to healthily achieve this goal do ye think?

mickman

3 months

Deedsie

mickman wrote: »

3 months

That would be brilliant. I hope I stick with it. This is my new diet.

7:45 Porridge with water, cottage cheese, boiled egg.
10:00 yogurt, berries, granola bar & a cup of tea
12:30 mixed salad from tesco
3:00 apple/ plain cashew nuts
5:30 dinner 2 chicken breasts, mixed veg, 4 croquettes
7:00 on training days
Strawberry protein shake with creatine.
9:30 tea and a couple of biscuits

Deedsie

Could anyone recommend a healthy yogurt and where to get it? They all seem to have high sugar content!

Gummy Panda

Deedsie wrote: »

Could anyone recommend a healthy yogurt and where to get it? They all seem to have high sugar content!

Try a natural Greek yoghurt

Deedsie

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Try a natural Greek yoghurt

Is there a brand name for that yogurt? I spent ten minutes in the yogurt section of tesco today! I don't remember seeing Greek anything. Thanks for the tip though! Would I have more luck in a health shop?

Frogdog

Lidl do a big tub/bucket of full fat natural Greek yoghurt. It's by far and away the nicest I've tasted. And it's the cheapest too so win-win!

However, if I were you, I'd cut out that granola bar. Have some cottage cheese (again Lidl) or a couple of boiled eggs or some good quality protein source. A chicken breast or a piece of steak even.

Gummy Panda

Deedsie wrote: »

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Try a natural Greek yoghurt

Is there a brand name for that yogurt? I spent ten minutes in the yogurt section of tesco today! I don't remember seeing Greek anything. Thanks for the tip though! Would I have more luck in a health shop?

Big tub in Lidl as frog says.

I think it has the lowest sugars and carbs of any brand I've seen.

Justin1982

Deedsie wrote: »

Is there a brand name for that yogurt? I spent ten minutes in the yogurt section of tesco today! I don't remember seeing Greek anything. Thanks for the tip though! Would I have more luck in a health shop?

I'm not sure it really matters how much sugar is in the yogurt or not.

It matters how much calories you consume. If your average daily calorie intake via all food sources is less than your average calories burnt by your body then you'll loose weight. Stick to that simple rule for weight loss and it will work whether you exercise or not!
Dont get hung up on how much fat or sugar you consume. Just get hung up on total calories!

If achilles is injured, can you at least cycle? I think cardio is a more efficient way to burn calories. You'll burn more fat than muscle via cardio compared to doing weights. If your doing weights then you'll have to be watching protein intake as well to ensure your not loosing mucsle and muscles recover properly after a workout. Trying to get the protein in can mean you eat more calories.

boogle

In Tesco you can get their own brand greek yoghurt - it's in a big 500g tub. They also sell Glenisk greek yoghurt, again in the big tub. It can taste a little tart if you're used to sweetened yoghurts. Throw a dollop on top of some fruit and it's delicious.

Deedsie

Thanks for the tips, I was hoping to get smaller tubs. So I could bring them to work for a morning snack with some black berries.

I dont have a bike to cycle, I have weights at home. I can swim, maybe that would be a good alternative way to burn off the excess fat?

Since I've been training, it has become clearer that I have a significant amount of fat on my body, 20%+ I would estimate. That's 16.4kg fat on my 82.2kg body. I should prob be aiming to lose 10% to see definition? 8.2kg of fat will take a big effort.

At least now I know there is some bit of muscle growing underneath.

Gauge

Deedsie I buy the Lidl 1kg tub of yogurt and use small round tupperware containers to bring portions of Greek yogurt into work with me, they're very handy, just pop it open and throw some berries in! It ends up being way cheaper than buying individual pots- works out at about 20c a serving for me.

Mellor

Deedsie wrote: »

That would be brilliant. I hope I stick with it. This is my new diet.

7:45 Porridge with water, cottage cheese, boiled egg.
10:00 yogurt, berries, granola bar & a cup of tea
12:30 mixed salad from tesco
3:00 apple/ plain cashew nuts
5:30 dinner 2 chicken breasts, mixed veg, 4 croquettes
7:00 on training days
Strawberry protein shake with creatine.
9:30 tea and a couple of biscuits

Your diet is still pretty poor.

Granola bar is a very generic terms, some of them are very high in sugar and therefore calories. I'd jsut cut this out. The poster that suggest them is prob jsut falling for the marketing.

Cashew nuts are good, but how big a portion are you eating? Unless you are weighing out a small portion i'd cut them out completely. The majority of people underestimate portion size, this is very bad especially with nuts.

Biscuits - but you already know that

Deedsie

Mellor wrote: »

Your diet is still pretty poor.

Granola bar is a very generic terms, some of them are very high in sugar and therefore calories. I'd jsut cut this out. The poster that suggest them is prob jsut falling for the marketing.

Cashew nuts are good, but how big a portion are you eating? Unless you are weighing out a small portion i'd cut them out completely. The majority of people underestimate portion size, this is very bad especially with nuts.

Biscuits - but you already know that

Ya, the granola bars are nature valley. I only have a handful of cashews. I have cut the biscuits down to lifting days.