Looking for some Diet and Exercise Critique Please

OREGATO

Hey guys,

Just looking for some critique on my diet and exercise scheme. The plan is really to lose as much weight as possible using the simple logic of burn more calories than you take in.

Stats: Male, 5'7, 207 lb's.

Started this around 3 weeks ago and have lost a bit of weight so far, but just wanted some more advice etc to get as far as I can go. So far, I've lost over 15 lb's and have noticed a bit more room in my clothes if you get me.

Food Intake - Typical Day

Breakfast: (9am) A banana and (10am) Fat free Activa strawberry yoghurt.

Lunch: (1pm) Salad consisting of a few leaves of gem lettuce, half a stick of celery, half a tomato, a few slices of cucumber, 3 thin slices of chirizo and either a tin of tuna in sunflower oil (2/3's drained) or a boiled/oven cooked chicken breast/leg. Dressing consists of squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of olive oil.

Afternoon: (3pm) Another banana (4pm) Another Fat free Activa strawberry yoghurt.

After work: (6pm) Another banana and/or slice of Gala melon and/or Activa yoghurt.

Dinner: (7pm or 8pm) Either the same as lunch or else oven cooked fish and boiled mushroom/carrots/green beans

After Dinner: (9pm or 10pm) If I feel a hunger pang, I'll grab a slice of Gala melon from the fridge

Snacks: I don't really snack. No sweets or candy or biscuits

Drinks: Water only - over 8 glasses a day. No tea/coffee/fizzy drinks/alcohol

Exercise
Started to cycle into and out of work 5/6 days a week. I would always try to up the pace and try not to 'relax' on the bike.

Consists of the following:

From home - circa 7 kml's slightly downhill - rough time 20 minutes
From work - circa 7 kml's slightly uphill - rough time 33 minutes

Walking - brisk walks with the dog in the park typically 3 times a week, average is 5 kml's at roughly 50 minutes. Have started to incorporate some light jogging into these walks (less than 45 seconds at the moment)

Other Information
I work in an office and sit at a computer 9 to 5.
Not into drinking so I don't miss it.
I'm a smoker (I know, I know).
Would say that I was very unfit and inactive before I decided to start living healthier.
Main aim is to lose as much weight as possible and look 'normal'.

Some Questions
I would really appreciate your help and advice on anything that you see that I could do to increase my weight loss. I'm open to criticism and ideas etc. Just some questions I have about my current situation.

1. Yoghurts - I'm eating the Activia ones with 0% fat. I don't like flavourless yoghurt and would prefer to stick with a strawberry flavoured one. Any recommendations instead of what I'm eating?

2. My general diet - Is it ok? What can I improve? I know that you may say that I'll get bored of the same thing, but over time if I think I'm starting to slip, I will try to find different recipes. How can I improve on the main meals and the in betweens?

3. When I eat - I know this will sound stupid, but normally, I eat the salads first and then leave the meat until the end, is there anything health wise that this causes - apart from looking stupid :P

4. Exercise - First time I'm on a bicycle in a few years, but finding time to do other exercise is difficult due to work commitments, anything I can improve upon? Is the cycling going to help or is there a better way?

5. Any other tips/advice/criticism, I would really like it. I'm very motivated right now and just want to continue and improve quicker if I can.

Thanks in advance and thanks for reading.

Oregato.

OREGATO

Hi guys,

Anyone anything to offer?

colman1212

Hey Buddy, With Diet I reckon sugar is the enemy and not fat. The less sugar in your diet the better especially when trying to lose weight.
The foods you want to focus on are eggs, nuts, fish, meat, vegtables.
Even fruit in general has quiet a high amount of fructose which is essentially sugar and which is bad when trying to lose weight.

I would cut the banana's and the yogurts from your diet completely and replace with fish and nuts. Even something similar like a handful of nuts and a can of tuna or salmon.

I work in a desk job too. Just have a Tupperware container filled with nuts on your desk and keep a load of cans of tuna/salmon in the drawer. Its simple, really healthy and doesn't take any time to prepare.

Lunch and dinner look good but sort out the breakfast. Get some eggs in some form. Omelet, scrambled on a slice of rye bread. A bananna and a yoghurt is a terrible breakfast.

Most importantly I think if you use the above suggestions you will defo feel less hungry.

Doing some weights is something I would also recommend strongly

OREGATO

colman1212 wrote: »

Hey Buddy, With Diet I reckon sugar is the enemy and not fat. The less sugar in your diet the better especially when trying to lose weight.
The foods you want to focus on are eggs, nuts, fish, meat, vegtables.
Even fruit in general has quiet a high amount of fructose which is essentially sugar and which is bad when trying to lose weight.

I would cut the banana's and the yogurts from your diet completely and replace with fish and nuts. Even something similar like a handful of nuts and a can of tuna or salmon.

I work in a desk job too. Just have a Tupperware container filled with nuts on your desk and keep a load of cans of tuna/salmon in the drawer. Its simple, really healthy and doesn't take any time to prepare.

Lunch and dinner look good but sort out the breakfast. Get some eggs in some form. Omelet, scrambled on a slice of rye bread. A bananna and a yoghurt is a terrible breakfast.

Most importantly I think if you use the above suggestions you will defo feel less hungry.

Doing some weights is something I would also recommend strongly

Thanks for the advice colman, much appreciated!

I've cut down the amount of bananas and yoghurts I'm eating and have also included a boiled egg for breakfast (made the night before along with dinner) which is proving very handy.

Overall, I think I'm doing ok, but would like to continue to try and stay on course and lose more weight, more quickly.

Weighed in today at 201.8 Lb's, I started all of this back 35 days ago at a starting weight of 227.3 Lb's so I must be doing something right.

Any other hints or tips would be great

Reading these forums is great as well, I know I haven't had much interest in this thread but replies and topics on other threads have been great motivation and full of advice.

Col_Loki

Colman has hit the nail on the head. Generally things that advertise low fat are jammed full of Sugar which spikes your insulin (fat storage hormone).


I would increase the eggs even more, you can hard boil a tonne of them at once and stick them in the fridge....great for you. I would have 2/3 for Breakfast and maybe 2/3 more during the day.

Nuts are also good but are very high in calories so you should only be eating a small amount as a snack. Also make sure you get healthy nuts like Brazil, Cashew etc (not Salted/Dry Roasted).

Beans are another handy thing to add to the diet if you find you are hungry. They are slow burning fuel, relatively low calories per portion and keep you full for ages. If you are getting Baked Beans, make sure to get the No Sugar ones. 2mins in the microwave and they are ready.


You are doing well on the exercise front, good work, increase it little by little. As they say weight loss is 80% Diet and 20% exercise...but exercise is a big help and you feel much better.
Doing some weights would also be a benefit, have you thought about incorporating even a small amount to start?

1. Yoghurts - I'm eating the Activia ones with 0% fat. I don't like flavourless yoghurt and would prefer to stick with a strawberry flavoured one. Any recommendations instead of what I'm eating?

I would cut down on the yoghurts. Start looking at the sugar content and worry less about the fat content.

2. My general diet - Is it ok? What can I improve? I know that you may say that I'll get bored of the same thing, but over time if I think I'm starting to slip, I will try to find different recipes. How can I improve on the main meals and the in betweens?

It is looking pretty decent, a few changes listed above will help.
Also if you are eating cans of Tuna, try to get it in "Brine" instead of Oil. Have a look at the Kcal difference

3. When I eat - I know this will sound stupid, but normally, I eat the salads first and then leave the meat until the end, is there anything health wise that this causes - apart from looking stupid

Makes no difference, i do the same myself. Leave the best until the end....

4. Exercise - First time I'm on a bicycle in a few years, but finding time to do other exercise is difficult due to work commitments, anything I can improve upon? Is the cycling going to help or is there a better way?

Adding some weight training would be good. But you could keep that until later if you plateau with weight loss.


You definitely are doing a good job, very good start losing ~20+lbs is impressive!

Keep it up.

Even starting some press ups would be a great starting point wrt weights training.

cmyk

Good work Oregato...25lbs in about 5 weeks is super. My 2c, if it aint broke, don't fix it. Consistency in the basics (ultimately creating that energy deficit) trumps all the smaller details so if that's the sort of diet/exercise regime that keeps you on track then stick with it.

As your weight decreases so will your energy needs, just keep monitoring it and then tweak as necessary. Your 201lb self will need less energy than at 227lb so don't panic if you see that rate of weight loss slowing.

As your fitness levels and work capacity increase then look at introducing some other form of exercise (if you want). Plenty of options around now in terms of local group training/sports clubs/garage gyms aswell as the option of traditional gym membership.

OREGATO

Col_Loki wrote: »

Colman has hit the nail on the head. Generally things that advertise low fat are jammed full of Sugar which spikes your insulin (fat storage hormone).


I would increase the eggs even more, you can hard boil a tonne of them at once and stick them in the fridge....great for you. I would have 2/3 for Breakfast and maybe 2/3 more during the day.

Nuts are also good but are very high in calories so you should only be eating a small amount as a snack. Also make sure you get healthy nuts like Brazil, Cashew etc (not Salted/Dry Roasted).

Beans are another handy thing to add to the diet if you find you are hungry. They are slow burning fuel, relatively low calories per portion and keep you full for ages. If you are getting Baked Beans, make sure to get the No Sugar ones. 2mins in the microwave and they are ready.


You are doing well on the exercise front, good work, increase it little by little. As they say weight loss is 80% Diet and 20% exercise...but exercise is a big help and you feel much better.
Doing some weights would also be a benefit, have you thought about incorporating even a small amount to start?




I would cut down on the yoghurts. Start looking at the sugar content and worry less about the fat content.



It is looking pretty decent, a few changes listed above will help.
Also if you are eating cans of Tuna, try to get it in "Brine" instead of Oil. Have a look at the Kcal difference



Makes no difference, i do the same myself. Leave the best until the end....



Adding some weight training would be good. But you could keep that until later if you plateau with weight loss.


You definitely are doing a good job, very good start losing ~20+lbs is impressive!

Keep it up.

Thanks for the kind words and motivation Col! I've took your advice and started to eat two boiled eggs in the morning, one at 9 when I get into work and then another at 10, I find it keeps me going until lunch time at least.

Nut's are fairly expensive and with the healthy eating already (I can't believe how much it costs!!) I'll stay off them. I've cut down on the bananas and yogurts but if I'm honest, I'm still having a few a week.

RoverJames wrote: »

Even starting some press ups would be a great starting point wrt weights training.

cmyk wrote: »

Good work Oregato...25lbs in about 5 weeks is super. My 2c, if it aint broke, don't fix it. Consistency in the basics (ultimately creating that energy deficit) trumps all the smaller details so if that's the sort of diet/exercise regime that keeps you on track then stick with it.

As your weight decreases so will your energy needs, just keep monitoring it and then tweak as necessary. Your 201lb self will need less energy than at 227lb so don't panic if you see that rate of weight loss slowing.

As your fitness levels and work capacity increase then look at introducing some other form of exercise (if you want). Plenty of options around now in terms of local group training/sports clubs/garage gyms aswell as the option of traditional gym membership.

Some great advice there CMYK, as for weights, I've been down that route before and what I've always found is I lack the motivation to keep going with them. I would start off enjoying them, maybe for the first two or three weeks but then after that, they sort of become a chore, whereas with the cycling, I'm actually still enjoying it and to be honest, I have to do it regardless as I use it as a form of transport into and out of work also.

One thing I'm worried about is if the rate of weight loss stalls.. Where do I go from there? This week, I've come in at just under 197 pounds (I can't believe I've actually made the sub 200 mark which for me, is a huge achievement in a pyschological way) I'm worried that if I 'plauteau' - is that the right word? And don't have a back up plan that I may start losing confidence and motivation.. Why does one plateau?

Also, during the walks I've been doing, I've been adding a lot more jogging into it, to the extent that I hurt my knee yesterday, but from what I read, I should be building it up as I go long, should I not push myself to the extent I'm out of breath or how should one approach this? I 'walked' 9.11 km yesterday and incorporated lengthy stints of jogging slowly but by around the 7 km mark, I really pushed hard and actually jogged for a lot longer than I normally would have - norm would have been a 30 second light jog but yesterday, I went up to 2 mins to 4 mins), my knee started hurting so I had to walk the rest.. It's a bit better today but still a bit sore when going down stairs so I'll lay off the running for now, but how should I build this up?

Again, many thanks for the replies and help. It's been so helpful and motivating. Keep it coming!

jinxremoving

I would recommend lidl/aldi for nuts and seeds. I buy a bag of almonds for around 1.79 for 200g and it lasts me ages just having a small handful for a snack. they have great sunflower seeds/ mixed nuts as well which are great value.

well done on getting below 200lbs! jogging with extra weight can be a pressure on the knees. would swimming be possible? keep up the walking and cycling and eating well and you'll be as fit as a fiddle in no time

OREGATO

jinxremoving wrote: »

I would recommend lidl/aldi for nuts and seeds. I buy a bag of almonds for around 1.79 for 200g and it lasts me ages just having a small handful for a snack. they have great sunflower seeds/ mixed nuts as well which are great value.

well done on getting below 200lbs! jogging with extra weight can be a pressure on the knees. would swimming be possible? keep up the walking and cycling and eating well and you'll be as fit as a fiddle in no time

Thanks jinxremoving!

Yeah, I had thought of Aldi/Lidl, but only found spicy or salted varieties, must look closer next time! I'll probably bring them in a container because if I had the bag, I'd devour them all in one sitting.

Yeah, I presumed it would have been the additional weight and the lack of being active that had caused me to hurt it, mind you, it's feeling better today but I'll leave a few days to recover before getting back to the jogging, I cycled in this morning and was relieved to find it didn't hurt.

I'm no swimmer so that's out of the question I'm afraid, although I could learn, but finding the time etc would be difficult due to hours I work and stuff like that.

Col_Loki

Thanks for the kind words and motivation Col! I've took your advice and started to eat two boiled eggs in the morning, one at 9 when I get into work and then another at 10, I find it keeps me going until lunch time at least.

Nut's are fairly expensive and with the healthy eating already (I can't believe how much it costs!!) I'll stay off them. I've cut down on the bananas and yogurts but if I'm honest, I'm still having a few a week.

Good work! Eggs are great, healthy and fill you up. If you get bored of boiled eggs you can also scramble them in the microwave (takes 2mins).

You can pick up the likes of Monkey nuts which are very cheap and do the trick but if you are happy enough without them then no need to introduce them (especially if you think you will over eat on them)!

You could introduce some beans into the Diet which are cheap and very filling. The likes of Baked Beans are so handy to have (just make sure to get Sugar free ones). You can get bags of black/pinto/etc beans for ~€1-2 euro that you can get 5-10 servings from....just a bit more of a pain to cook them when compared to Tinned beans.

Some great advice there CMYK, as for weights, I've been down that route before and what I've always found is I lack the motivation to keep going with them. I would start off enjoying them, maybe for the first two or three weeks but then after that, they sort of become a chore, whereas with the cycling, I'm actually still enjoying it and to be honest, I have to do it regardless as I use it as a form of transport into and out of work also.

One thing I'm worried about is if the rate of weight loss stalls.. Where do I go from there? This week, I've come in at just under 197 pounds (I can't believe I've actually made the sub 200 mark which for me, is a huge achievement in a pyschological way) I'm worried that if I 'plauteau' - is that the right word? And don't have a back up plan that I may start losing confidence and motivation.. Why does one plateau?

Also, during the walks I've been doing, I've been adding a lot more jogging into it, to the extent that I hurt my knee yesterday, but from what I read, I should be building it up as I go long, should I not push myself to the extent I'm out of breath or how should one approach this? I 'walked' 9.11 km yesterday and incorporated lengthy stints of jogging slowly but by around the 7 km mark, I really pushed hard and actually jogged for a lot longer than I normally would have - norm would have been a 30 second light jog but yesterday, I went up to 2 mins to 4 mins), my knee started hurting so I had to walk the rest.. It's a bit better today but still a bit sore when going down stairs so I'll lay off the running for now, but how should I build this up?

Again, many thanks for the replies and help. It's been so helpful and motivating. Keep it coming!

Well done again, doing great! Have you set yourself a new goal?

At the moment you are flying along, i wouldnt worry about a plateau just keep going the way you are. If you find you do find you hit one it might only be for a short time period. If it lasts longer than a week or two then you can look at making adjustments to the diet and possibly adding in a bit of weight exercise.

With regards the walking/jogging you are doing quite a good distance there and like jinx said you can put extra pressure on your knees if you are jogging (as the weight is being banging is being absorbed by them). A couple of things...
How regularly are you walking/jogging that distance? It is a good idea to give yourself a day in between for recovery.
Since you are having knee pains, it means you have overdone it a bit....best give it a few days to rest and recover, you can go for a cycle instead as there is no impact.
What type of runners are you wearing btw?

Swimming is good but the fact that you like cycling and it is obviously working for you then i would stick with that. It is the impact that is most likely causing the knee pain, even though it is harder to find a nice track jogging/walking on grass is much kinder on the knees.


How are you finding things so far? Any trouble sticking to the diet etc? I am sure the results are giving you plenty of motivation!