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Keith in cork

Good evening folks,

I'm a complete newbie / novice to all things health and fitness. I can't honestly say when my last real workout was..... in the past 8yrs.

The stats.

Age: 26
Height: 5'10"
weight: 15st

This puts my BMI at 30.1.

Almost every "ideal weight" guide tells a different story. My ideal weight would be 12st or 12st odd. I used to be very active in my teens. I boxed, played both football and soccer and was busy at least 5 nights a week with these. I then began working and they kind of got in the way. Hindsight is a great thing, but now i realise stopping movement completely was a bad idea ( :eek: )

Even in the first 6yrs my weight didn't shoot up too much. I went from 11 odd to just under 13 stone. I was working 12hr days, and drank 3/5 pints of beer per night regularly. I am also a 20 a day guy.

Almost 2yrs ago i gave up the drink. Completly. Not a drop has passed my lips in this time. I did however, start drinking coke / lucozade instead and as every one knows they are quite addictive.

So here i am at 15stone, 26yrs old and over weight. The gym is not for me.
I set my goal about 3 weeks ago that i'd be starting training for the winter/spring so today i went out and just did 1.5k as i was unsure if i could even manage 100 meters never mind 1000. I just took it in lenghts of the local gaa pitch outer perimiter.

My calculations are based on Ipod nano 6th gen Nike fitness app. How accurate they are, i'm not convinced.

I did stop every 2 lenghts for a breath, But i didn't expect to do it all in one go. I have a min/km time recorded, but as it was over paused intervils, i'll wait until i run a continuous km/kms before i post it. I just went out today for 25mins Just to see how i'd get on. The plan is to up it by 10/15 mins a day each day until i can manage a constant 30mins and then so on and so forth.

Oh, and my diet...? HORRENDOUS.

I do realise i am being a bit slow and a bit cautious with my attempts / time spent excercising. My number 1 excuse is i know i can't handle it just yet. I also don't want to do myself an injury and have to give up before i start and thirdly, both my knee's are dodgy. My right knee has a fluid build up which comes and goes and my left tibia is roughly 1.5" out of place sustained in a football match when i was 14. I was told to stop playing then for a year or two, yeh right :rolleyes: Guess i should have. When i was active it would flare up from time to time, but i'm not in constant pain with it.

Any pointers or advice will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to using the forum a bit more often now.

Keith.

Smartguy

Firstly well done on giving up the drink!
The key here I suspect will be diet, it is worth putting up your current diet and I am sure a few of the experts here will give some good tips.

daithieoghan

I'm 28 and my height is the same. I was 15 and a half stone about 9 months ago.
I know it gives 12 St as an ideal weight but it doesn't account for everything.
My body fat was about 25 which is just at the lower limits of fat bastard.
I changed my diet, fast food is gone bar a monthly treat. I eat 3 meals a day with healthy snacks. Pin head oatmeal for breakfast that kind of thing.
I go to the gym 3/4 times a week setting new goals to meet every 6 weeks, then set new ones.
I smoke 20 a day as well and this has held me back big time improving my cardio greatly but I burn a lot of calories.
I eat about 2000 calories a day but upped my exercise from very little to the above.
Iv had to work hard and I weigh 13 and a half stone at the moment. My body fat is around 14.5% now which is very healthy.
Look it's not that easy but at the same time it's not crazy difficult and iv taken a week off here or there.
Well done on deciding to get fit and I wish you well. Eat breakfast, get rid of White bread and other crap carbs. Eat eggs/chicken/fish/steak and loads of steamed veg.
Don't just do running, do sprints, interval training, push ups, sit ups, as many exercises as possible because you won't be in a gym.

marathonic

Agreed... at 15 stone, it's going to be 90% diet, 10% excercise in my opinion. The diet will probably play a slightly less important role when you get to your ideal weight as you'll be a lot fitter, be able to excercise more intensively and won't need to have a calorie deficit.

If you take running as an example, every mile you run burns about 110 calories so, based on this, a 1.5k run burns about 103 calories. Obviously, you'll be building on this but even a 5k run only burns about 350 calories. Considering a snickers bar is almost 300 calories, you should see why you can't go out for a 5k run and then treat yourself to a bar of chocolate after.

Have a look at this program which slowly builds up to 5k. You can then get follow up programs to build up to 10k.

3,500 calories equates to 1lb of fat so if you work out your BMR (the number of calories required to just stay alive) and reduce this by 500 per day, you should burn 1lb of fat per week. If you then add 3,500 calories worth of excercise per week (it'll take some time to build up to this), you'll burn an additional 1lb of fat per week.

You can track your calories using a free site like www.fitday.com and, if you have a smartphone, you can download the associated app to your phone for easier tracking.

Keith in cork

Some good info there guys. I'll have a read of the links and i'll post back later. And also, i should have stated, the gym is not for me ........NOW. When i can sustain a reasonable amount of time on a treadmill and other general excercises without stopping every two minutes for some air, i'll go then.

Kevin Duffy

Keith in cork wrote: »

I do realise i am being a bit slow and a bit cautious with my attempts / time spent excercising. My number 1 excuse is i know i can't handle it just yet. I also don't want to do myself an injury and have to give up before i start and thirdly, both my knee's are dodgy. My right knee has a fluid build up which comes and goes and my left tibia is roughly 1.5" out of place sustained in a football match when i was 14. I was told to stop playing then for a year or two, yeh right :rolleyes: Guess i should have. When i was active it would flare up from time to time, but i'm not in constant pain with it.

Keith.

No you're not, you're doing 100% more than you were this time last week. Well done, give yourself credit for starting and don't be aplogetic about what you did today, it's a great start and once you've made up your mind to make the change, the rest will come.

Keith in cork

Thanks guys,

I've read over the two links posted by marathonic. First of all, the couch to 5k plan looks awesome. It looks so achievable with the way its broken down. Given the start date for me (today) i think the weather will hamper my progress along the 8week plan, but i'm going to give it a good lash.

I'm still working my way around the fitday guide filling out all the information to get it set-up, but it also looks great and a useful resource.

On one part of the planner, there is a guide to calorie restriction to achieve my goal weight. My current weight is 210lb's, and my goal is entered as 150lb. The date i have set, is my next birthday (27) which is 38weeks or july 31 2012. Is this an attainable date would the experts think?

I also used the calculator to see what restrictions per day i'd need to achieve my goal. It says Based on the guideline that a restiction of 3,500 calories results in one pound of weight loss, to acheive your goal of losing 60
pounds in 38
week(s) and 6
day(s) you should restrict your calorie intake by 772
calories per day.

Am i kidding myself? Given my lack of knowledge in calorie counts I am of the thinking 9months is a reasonable goal for 60lbs?

I have managed to get hold of a weights bench tonight for the spare room. And my mate has soom books on crunches and excercises that i will borrow and try pick some out.

Now i gather with the diet being named as my biggest problem / change needed that i should post a general idea so as maybe a poster can give me their feedback as i am pretty clueless when it comes to planning a weekly / daily menu.

Brace yourselves, this is as above pretty horific

I eat breakfast maybe once a week. Usually on a saturday or sunday morning. Its usually of the grilled variety. Bacon or sausage on toasted white or a white bagel, usually butter, sometimes cream cheese maybe once a month. It just happens that way, i don't restrict myself to once month.

I do keep a box of branflakes in the press, but i dont eat them for breakfast. Maybe 3 times a month i will use them as a snack, but i will have a spoon of sugar thus cancelling out the good point of them.
If anybody is making a suggestion, i'd eat this daily as breakfast if their suitable.

Weekdays i don't eat breakfast.

Breakfast total 1 per week.

First meal is lunch.

once a week at a bar, toasted chicken/stuffing/cheese on toasted white/butter, NO sidesalad/crisps/chips.

Twice a week, a hot chicken baugette from the local deli. Mayo/cheese/white baugette.

Lunch total 3 per week.

I have dinner everyday. Usually @ 6.30pm followed by ZERO excercise before turning in for bed.

The usual dinners are home cooked, rarely bought / frozen but never very healthy thinking back now.

Usually.....

Roast chicken, roast potato, gravy, no veg.

Pasta carbonara (:eek: i know) smoked streaky bacon, reduced cream, fresh parmesan and egg yolk to thicken. Pasta.

Pork/chicken stir fry. Stir-fried pepper/scallion/bean sprouts, either pork or chicken and boiled rice. The only sauce is some dark soy.

Maybe once a fortnight a frozen pizza.

Spag bol. Fried mince, onion, garlic, can chopped tomatoe, squeeze of tomato puree, pasta.

Chicken kiev / wedges (oven).

Fish cakes (bought) / wedges/chips (oven)

As you see, there is no veg. I do eat all vegetables, i'm just lazy


I do however drink 2/2.5L of cola or lucozade/mixture of both DAILY. I do check my blood sugar level regularly and it is normal. That suprises me.

I will eat 5 packets of crisps weekly. And some nights, friday usually we will pig out (i know, as if the above wasn't already :pac: ). Peanuts/popcorn/malteesers with a movie.

Hope that helps (doesn't shock).

Keith.

hardCopy

Your goals are certainly achievable. I was 15'5" back in April and very unfit, I did the marathon on Monday at 12'9".

On the diet, am I reading that right, you regularly go all day with no food till dinner time?

Keith in cork

hardCopy wrote: »

Your goals are certainly achievable. I was 15'5" back in April and very unfit, I did the marathon on Monday at 12'9".

On the diet, am I reading that right, you regularly go all day with no food till dinner time?

Wow, marathon aside, you've got to where i want to in a great time. Fair play.

Yes sir, then i eat and watch tv, sleep and get up again.

Antisocialiser

The first priority diet-wise is to drop the cola - from what i can find on the web ( all measurements are in fluid ounces ) it looks like you could be drinking an extra 800-1000 calories a day here. If you are slimming you won't want to be drinking any percentage of your calorie intake.

I think you should cut out the soft drinks and eat only whole real unprocessed foods. Have a look at the palaeolithic diet and base your meals around beef, chicken, eggs, fruit and veg etc. These foods keep you fuller for longer. Also have a look in the stickies for g'em's calorie deficit calculation for losing weight.

Good luck man!

hardCopy

Keith in cork wrote: »

Wow, marathon aside, you've got to where i want to in a great time. Fair play.

Yes sir, then i eat and watch tv, sleep and get up again.

You'll probably get more specific advice in the Diet and Nutrition Forum but many of the same people post here as well.

A 2L bottle of coke contains 840 KCals, that's about what I consume between breakfast and lunch, but I'd imagine you go home starving and have a big dinner.

2L of Lucozade Energy is 1400 KCals - Roughly what you'd burn in a half marathon.

I don't know enough to give you much specific advice myself but use sites like FitDay to work out how many calories you burn each day through your Basal Metabolic Rate + Exercise, then eat less than this.

Spread your calories throughout the day and get them from real food. Ditch the Coke/Lucozade. Some would say to ditch all fizzy drinks but I get by fine having a can of Coke Zero with lunch.

Stay away from white bread, get lots of greens in. Eat lean meat.

hardCopy

Antisocialiser wrote: »

The first priority diet-wise is to drop the cola - from what i can find on the web ( all measurements are in fluid ounces )

Tesco.ie is handy for looking up nutritional info.

tankbarry

hi guys

Keith I am the exact same as yourself. Practically the same height, same weight. Over the last year I went from exercising ( broken Leg ) 4 days a week to nothing my weight at the time was 14st 1pound and I was still losing weight. My diet at the moment is crap. I would have no problem eating a snack box and then the leftover from the little fellow and wife and have a pint of 2 aswell. I have a weight loss goal of getting to at least 13st 4pd I know its alot and might not be practical but worth a try. Im ok to run at the moment but shinsplints are a problem.

Yesterday I had 2 slices of brown bread for breakfast, roast spuds beef and loads of carrotts and brocoli and late last night I had 2 more slices of bread during the day I also drank 2 cups of tea and 2 litres of water...

I really want to get to my target

Barry.Oglesby

Hey well done on starting- it's the hardest part.

Just a couple of things. Lucozade and Coke are not addictive. You won't need to go into rehab if you stop drinking them. The first step to not drinking either of them is just to not buy them. It's literally as easy as it sounds.

Secondly, sack up and eat breakfast. You're not 14 anymore. Your breakfasts when you eat them actually aren't all that terrible. the way your current diet is, eating fairly much anything for breakfast is going to be an improvement as the lack of food at that time and that's a good contributor as to why the rest of your day is filled with crap, high calorie drinks. Your body is crying out for energy and you're giving it calories in the form of high-sugar drinks.

For lunch, you're essentially eating bread in extremely high quantities. I'm not as anti-bread as others would be, but it's time to change your mindset on the make-up of the meal- Bread is an accompaniment to a meal that has lean meat and salad/vegetables. At the moment bread is the main component.

Dinner-wise, you know how to cook or have someone in your life who does. This is good. Now you just have to sack up again and do the right thing more often. Stir fries, spag bol etc. are a good way to go but once again, look to the makeup of the meal. Is is 80% pasta/rice 20% meat and veg? This ain't the way to go. To keep it simple, reduce your portions of pasta and rice and increase your portions of vegetables.

In all honesty, it sounds like you know what you have to do. You're not clueless about diet or exercise so just get out more and begin exercising.

best of luck.

Keith in cork

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Dinner-wise, you know how to cook or have someone in your life who does.

Thanks for all of the replies. Some more good informtion inside.

@ Barry, believe it or not, i'm actually a chef Hence the 14hr days and giving up my sporting life. I should really know more about the diet side of things given my background. But cooking my food and cooking it well won't be an issue, so thats a plus.

Its a given that the coke / lucozade is getting the elbow. I actually like drinking water. My problem is i always need to have a drink handy, and i always put coke in my fridge.

And as for types of foods and my intake of vegetables to achieve my goals, It won't be a problem, I could probably count on one hand the amount of things i will not eat and their the usual marmite items like beetroot for example.

Its shopping night tonight, so for the first time in years i'll do the shop with health in mind. As far as eating 3 good meals a day with lean meats, veg, fruit etc, This will be easy, i actually love my fruit / veg it was always just plain laziness why i haven't been eating correctly.

The smokes will be cut down until i eventually stop. Main probelm being i actually enjoy stopping up for 10 mins, sitting down and having a smoke. Wether its habit / addiction its 50/50 but i do know i have often gone for days without smoking and without tearing out my eyeballs.

I'm actually kind of excited (??) about this. I di my test run last night. Have a bit on tonight so wont have time, but first thing in the morning i'll make a start on the C25k planner.

@ tankbarry, your eating habits sound very like mine. I'd also eat mine, and nip away at the small lads left overs. Its not that i'm hungry, but its just a habit to pick away. Good luck in your goals.

If anybody else drops in and wants to post some more dietry plans ir general info, i'd be very much appreciative.

Keith.

Keith in cork

So, went out and did the shop.

The weekly menu looks like this.

Beef striploin shredded for stirfry with bean sprouts, peppers, carrot, red onion and cabbage. Boiled long grain.

Roast chicken, mashed pop's, fresh brocolli, carrot.

Baked loin of bacon, pop's, Curley Kale, carrot.

Fresh chicken breasts, will make a madras curry with just a sack of onions inside or if i'm good i'll do chicken aribata.

Swapped out my butter for low low. Big bowl of fruit on the table for snacks. No Sweet things incl no soft drinks just a roll of ice cube bags for ice cold water.

No white bread, brown soda.

Bran flakes for breakfast. Still got whole milk.

Eggs for scrambled egg on brown toast for a breakfast if i tire of branflakes.

Tuna, sardines both in brine and ham for lunch.

No chips / wedges. Nothing prepared

No sweets, NO COKE nothing fizzy.

Keith in cork

So Day 1 as such.

Had my breakfast, Branflakes, whole milk and no sugar.

I then chilled out for a bit and went for my morning excercise.

As posted earlier in the thread by marathonic, i'm following the Couch 2 5k system.

I had my brisk 5 min walk on the way to my local GAA grounds. A bit of a stretch (pretty lazy about it now thinking back) and started the repititions of Walk for 90 secs, jog for 60 secs, repeat and repeat until 20 mins are up. I drank water maybe 3 times during, a good mouthfull and a good pint after.

It was tough for me, but i just hought "f**k it, i'm here now, may aswell do it and see after"
Tbh after i finished, stood there cathching a breath i started to ponder " i wonder will it be nice and sunny again tomorrow morning". So thats a positive.

Its a lovely morning here in west cork, clear sky bright sunshine. I did however wrap myself up a hell of alot. Bin liner/t-shirt/hoodie/wolly hat/hood up and sleeves down the whole time i was out.

The bin liner was something we had to do in boxing training after weigh in. I read alot about it being a bad idea, but it does make you sweat buckets, and for the start it can only be a good thing? I mean i've been home 50mins now, had a cool shower to cool off / wash off, and i feel like i've just slept for 10hrs. Maybe its the optimism? Maybe it just hasn't kicked in yet? Whats the thought here on "sweat bags"?

When i came down after my shower, i was in the kitchen and just had a homer moment "mmmmmm apples". I wasn't hungry or peckish but just spotted te bowl of fruit and thought "apples? "i like apples". Maybe thats just my eating habits as i did this with crap food up to... well wednesday.

What would the thinking be on doing the 20mins walk/jog again this evening? I know the guide says put a day between sessions for recovery. And obviously i don't want to do too much too quick, but i feel great, i've a relaxed enough day ahead and i'll just be indoors watching the box come 6pm. Can't hurt? Should stay in this evening?

Also, i just did the walk/jog. I haven't done any sit ups/ push ups/sprints etc just yet. I don't see the point tbh. I mean, one day at a time. I feel good now because i did a little but had i have done a bit more i'd prob be on the floor. I will, maybe a weeks time, start to included these in my workout, but for now, i just want to get into a routine of getting up, breakfast, out for excercise and home again.

Kevin Duffy

Keith in cork wrote: »

So, went out and did the shop.

The weekly menu looks like this.

Beef striploin shredded for stirfry with bean sprouts, peppers, carrot, red onion and cabbage. Boiled long grain.

Roast chicken, mashed pop's, fresh brocolli, carrot.

Baked loin of bacon, pop's, Curley Kale, carrot.

Fresh chicken breasts, will make a madras curry with just a sack of onions inside or if i'm good i'll do chicken aribata.

Swapped out my butter for low low. Big bowl of fruit on the table for snacks. No Sweet things incl no soft drinks just a roll of ice cube bags for ice cold water.

No white bread, brown soda.

Bran flakes for breakfast. Still got whole milk.

Eggs for scrambled egg on brown toast for a breakfast if i tire of branflakes.

Tuna, sardines both in brine and ham for lunch.

No chips / wedges. Nothing prepared

No sweets, NO COKE nothing fizzy.

Well done, sounds like a good plan. Could I suggest a slight rethink on the bolded bits.

Sub in Sweet Potatoes some of the time.
Don't swap out the butter, it's not as bad as it's made out to be, has no transfats and is a good source of Omega3 and Vit A iirc. Just don't lash it on everything.
I'd say don't wait until you tire of Branflakes to eat the eggs for breakfast, start now. Or get to like porridge. Hard to beat as a breakfast. Great way to get milled nuts and seeds into you too.
If you're eating tinned fish, oil-packed is better imo - sunflower oil is good for you and the meal will be lower in salt. Too much hidden salt builds up quickly and is a health hazard. For the same reason, ham is not the healthiest choice.

Keep up the good work, great start.

Keith in cork

Kevin Duffy wrote: »

Well done, sounds like a good plan. Could I suggest a slight rethink on the bolded bits.

Sub in Sweet Potatoes some of the time.
Don't swap out the butter, it's not as bad as it's made out to be, has no transfats and is a good source of Omega3 and Vit A iirc. Just don't lash it on everything.
I'd say don't wait until you tire of Branflakes to eat the eggs for breakfast, start now. Or get to like porridge. Hard to beat as a breakfast. Great way to get milled nuts and seeds into you too.
If you're eating tinned fish, oil-packed is better imo - sunflower oil is good for you and the meal will be lower in salt. Too much hidden salt builds up quickly and is a health hazard. For the same reason, ham is not the healthiest choice.

Keep up the good work, great start.

Excellent post. Im shocked on the butter one. Also on the sunflower oil for my tinned sardines. Porridge is good with me, i just want to be able to change around the menu weekly so i'll add them to next weeks list.

Oh, and saving the sweet potato until i can get to the fish market for some fresh fish. But good spot.

Dotcomdolly

There's an awesome Jamie Oliver recipe for sea bass on sweet potato mash. Should be online if you have a google.

Keith in cork

Dotcomdolly wrote: »

There's an awesome Jamie Oliver recipe for sea bass on sweet potato mash. Should be online if you have a google.

Mines better.

Grilled sea bass, sweet potato puree, fennel slaw and black olive tapenade

But i do like jamies food.