noob diet and fitness question feedback?

zweton

Hi Guys,

Looking for some feedback on the below.
Just recently started a new diet and a new exercise plan.
Feel free to criticise.:)

Diet:

Breakfast 8.30 am - Bowl of Porridge and small glass of orange juice.

Lunch 1pm - Large salad bowl with glass of milk.

Dinner 6pm - 2 chicken fillets with brown rice, brocolli and carrots.

Apples and bananas in between as snacks and plenty of water.

Exercise:

Cardio : Consists of rowing machine, treadmill, exercise bike. Bout 10-15 mins on each.

Weights : Dumbell fly 3 x 10 reps. Dumbell bench press 3 x 10 reps. (i know i need to add in more, just not sure what?)

All in all i spend about 50 mins every day alternating between these cardio and weights exercises. I know its far from perfect and and i need to throw in a bit more.

Body stats : 33 years old, 5 ' 11 in height. 91.4 kgs.(200 pound) (I believe i need to have this arounf 78 kgs).

Any feedback much appreciated.

Thanks:)

thegreatiam

first, you need details.
What are your goals? fat loss? muscle gain? maintenance?

A bowl of porridge is not informative. your bowls could be way bigger than mine, and Ive been told I have huge bowls.
Measure and weigh your portions, and we can judge if you need more or less.

Assuming fat loss:
At a glance I suggest not enough protein, and not enough fats too much sugar.

A rule is you should get a large portion of protein each time you eat.
Eggs, for breakfast with that porridge. Skip the OJ.

Put some chicken or turkey or tuna or other meat on your lunch salad.

dinner is fine. maybe mix up the veg, but really it depends on portions.
To choose portion sizes get your protein first. Make it about a hand sized amount. If you have big hands you need more protein. then get double the amount of veg, then pick another veg and put the same amount on. If you are unsure if you have too much veg, add more veg. As long as you are getting good protein Veg is your go to food.
Fats are good, cook your meat with real irish butter, and put a knob(of butter!) on your veg. Feel free to put a glug of EV olive oil on your lunch salad.

Snack, fruit is ok, nuts and yoghurt is better. dried beef snack is best. (dealz beef jerky 1.49 per 35g bags)
Fruit is high sugar. so keep it to a minimum
Assuming muscle gain: Take all the advice above and double it. then drink a pint of milk with every meal.


Second you weights program is all pecs this is not a great program. You need back, and legs before you work pecs and biceps.
If you are a beginner you need to
A, keep it simple.
B, keep it short
C, keep it realistic
Also what are your goals? overall fitness? get huge muscles so you can walk around all oiled up in a thong? lift up as much heavy stuff as you can?

I would recommend, as a start to any goal, a program like strong lifts 5x5 or starting strength.
they are both simple, 3-5 exercises a day, 2 workouts, 3 days a week, low reps so you can keep your form in check and linear progression which will start of gentle but quickly push your muscles to working, they also get most of the body done in about an hour 3 times a week.
This will give you a good base to start from and a good knowledge of some basic lifts. Increase your muscle mass, make you stronger and make you overall fitter, after 12-15 weeks you can choose to tweak it to a more goal orientated program.

cardio is optional but recommended, but do it after the weights, for about 30 mins of going hard. Sprints running or cycling or rowing would be "better" than a 1 hour jog. Although either is fine.

Lastly, take a read of the stickies for some info about food and diet choices.

Post up your goals and targets if you have them and portion sizes, track everything you eat either on paper or via an app.

conzy

Whats your goal? The only resistance training you are doing is for your chest? And your lunch is pretty meh, you could add grilled chicken / tuna / ham / boiled eggs etc..

Overall your diet needs more variety. If you are serious about your goals you should track your calories as accurately as possible, for a few weeks atleast. And aim to lose 1-2 lbs per week. You can get an estimate of your BMR (amount of calories you need for maintenance) using an online calculator such as this one. And eat 20% less than that. It will take some trial and error to find your actual BMR

You should look at an "off the shelf" resistance training program. Something based on 5x5 compound movements.

Have a look at StrongLifts

zweton

thegreatiam wrote: »

first, you need details.
What are your goals? fat loss? muscle gain? maintenance?

A bowl of porridge is not informative. your bowls could be way bigger than mine, and Ive been told I have huge bowls.
Measure and weigh your portions, and we can judge if you need more or less.

Assuming fat loss:
At a glance I suggest not enough protein, and not enough fats too much sugar.

A rule is you should get a large portion of protein each time you eat.
Eggs, for breakfast with that porridge. Skip the OJ.

Put some chicken or turkey or tuna or other meat on your lunch salad.

dinner is fine. maybe mix up the veg, but really it depends on portions.
To choose portion sizes get your protein first. Make it about a hand sized amount. If you have big hands you need more protein. then get double the amount of veg, then pick another veg and put the same amount on. If you are unsure if you have too much veg, add more veg. As long as you are getting good protein Veg is your go to food.
Fats are good, cook your meat with real irish butter, and put a knob(of butter!) on your veg. Feel free to put a glug of EV olive oil on your lunch salad.

Snack, fruit is ok, nuts and yoghurt is better. dried beef snack is best. (dealz beef jerky 1.49 per 35g bags)
Fruit is high sugar. so keep it to a minimum
Assuming muscle gain: Take all the advice above and double it. then drink a pint of milk with every meal.


Second you weights program is all pecs this is not a great program. You need back, and legs before you work pecs and biceps.
If you are a beginner you need to
A, keep it simple.
B, keep it short
C, keep it realistic
Also what are your goals? overall fitness? get huge muscles so you can walk around all oiled up in a thong? lift up as much heavy stuff as you can?

I would recommend, as a start to any goal, a program like strong lifts 5x5 or starting strength.
they are both simple, 3-5 exercises a day, 2 workouts, 3 days a week, low reps so you can keep your form in check and linear progression which will start of gentle but quickly push your muscles to working, they also get most of the body done in about an hour 3 times a week.
This will give you a good base to start from and a good knowledge of some basic lifts. Increase your muscle mass, make you stronger and make you overall fitter, after 12-15 weeks you can choose to tweak it to a more goal orientated program.

cardio is optional but recommended, but do it after the weights, for about 30 mins of going hard. Sprints running or cycling or rowing would be "better" than a 1 hour jog. Although either is fine.

Lastly, take a read of the stickies for some info about food and diet choices.

Post up your goals and targets if you have them and portion sizes, track everything you eat either on paper or via an app.

My goal is to lose 1-1.5 stone ang generally tone up upper body. The porridge I eat is the alpen fruit n nut (40 grams per packet). My salad consists of Chicken, boiled egg, peppers etc. Not looking to bulk up I just want to get an athletic look, enough muscle to notice but I don't want to go overboard.

zweton

conzy wrote: »

Whats your goal? The only resistance training you are doing is for your chest? And your lunch is pretty meh, you could add grilled chicken / tuna / ham / boiled eggs etc..

Overall your diet needs more variety. If you are serious about your goals you should track your calories as accurately as possible, for a few weeks atleast. And aim to lose 1-2 lbs per week. You can get an estimate of your BMR (amount of calories you need for maintenance) using an online calculator such as this one. And eat 20% less than that. It will take some trial and error to find your actual BMR

You should look at an "off the shelf" resistance training program. Something based on 5x5 compound movements. Goal is to lose 1-2 stone and tone up the upper body. (Ifs that's a goal) :-)

Have a look at StrongLifts

Yes I have chicken and boiled eggs in with the salad. I like the looks of the strong lifts program, I have downloaded the PDF so will take a look.

runawaybishop

zweton wrote: »

My goal is to lose 1-1.5 stone ang generally tone up upper body. The porridge I eat is the alpen fruit n nut (40 grams per packet). My salad consists of Chicken, boiled egg, peppers etc. Not looking to bulk up I just want to get an athletic look, enough muscle to notice but I don't want to go overboard.

Don't neglect legwork, that would be a mistake. You won't accidentally put on too much muscle or bulk;)

thegreatiam

zweton wrote: »

My goal is to lose 1-1.5 stone ang generally tone up upper body. The porridge I eat is the alpen fruit n nut (40 grams per packet). My salad consists of Chicken, boiled egg, peppers etc. Not looking to bulk up I just want to get an athletic look, enough muscle to notice but I don't want to go overboard.

zweton wrote: »

Yes I have chicken and boiled eggs in with the salad. I like the looks of the strong lifts program, I have downloaded the PDF so will take a look.

Again, no details.
chicken, boiled egg, peppers etc is a vague as it comes.
How much chicken? 100 of breast meat? 2 slices of processed meat? how many peppers? 8? 32? how big are they? what exactly is ETC? track everything you eat, if your salad is 30g of lettuce and 5 black olives with pips then say so.

If your salad is 350g of chicken, 10 boiled eggs, 5 medium red peppers, 42 olives, 90g of lettuce then say so.

Start measuring and weighing your food, you need to start thinking in terms of grams and calories or you're facing a battle.


Also:

zweton wrote: »

Not looking to bulk up I just want to get an athletic look, enough muscle to notice but I don't want to go overboard.

You are still a little vague about your goals.
Toning simply means how taught your muscles look. Muscle definition is created by fat loss: lower body fat mean more muscle is visible.

For that taught athletic look you need to train and eat like an athlete. Fix your diet first.

And for the love of god don't start thinking you can bulk up too much without deliberately trying to.

People who are bulky have spent years and years and put in huge effort training and eating to get bulky, they didn't just wake up after a few session in the gym and were suddenly bulky.

"Oh crap, I accidentally got all swol' by doing a few bicep curls. Aw well, best get some oil on me and head to the thong shop"

To bulk up you need to eat more than you burn, and train hard. and do this for a long long time.

You are cutting fat, your main concern is to not to cut too much muscle mass. Train hard, eat slightly fewer calories then you use each day (300-500 per day) and eat a lot of protein. At least 1g per lb of body weight.



Strong lifts is a good program for your position, you get a lot of leg training and back training through rows, squats and deadlifts. You also get some arms and shoulders from bench and OH press.
You do not need to worry about anything else at this stage, don't feel like yo need to add in bicep curl yet. Stick with the simple entry level program for at least 12 weeks. Then decide what to change by then. Taking on too much at the beginning will either wear you out too fast or will cause imbalances. (training your becks and biceps too much more than your back and shoulders will cause you to round out and create problems later on.
If you want to add extra stuff to the work out add mobility exercises.

zweton

thegreatiam wrote: »

Again, no details.
chicken, boiled egg, peppers etc is a vague as it comes.
How much chicken? 100 of breast meat? 2 slices of processed meat? how many peppers? 8? 32? how big are they? what exactly is ETC? track everything you eat, if your salad is 30g of lettuce and 5 black olives with pips then say so.

If your salad is 350g of chicken, 10 boiled eggs, 5 medium red peppers, 42 olives, 90g of lettuce then say so.

Start measuring and weighing your food, you need to start thinking in terms of grams and calories or you're facing a battle.


Also:


You are still a little vague about your goals.
Toning simply means how taught your muscles look. Muscle definition is created by fat loss: lower body fat mean more muscle is visible.

For that taught athletic look you need to train and eat like an athlete. Fix your diet first.

And for the love of god don't start thinking you can bulk up too much without deliberately trying to.

People who are bulky have spent years and years and put in huge effort training and eating to get bulky, they didn't just wake up after a few session in the gym and were suddenly bulky.

"Oh crap, I accidentally got all swol' by doing a few bicep curls. Aw well, best get some oil on me and head to the thong shop"

To bulk up you need to eat more than you burn, and train hard. and do this for a long long time.

You are cutting fat, your main concern is to not to cut too much muscle mass. Train hard, eat slightly fewer calories then you use each day (300-500 per day) and eat a lot of protein. At least 1g per lb of body weight.



Strong lifts is a good program for your position, you get a lot of leg training and back training through rows, squats and deadlifts. You also get some arms and shoulders from bench and OH press.
You do not need to worry about anything else at this stage, don't feel like yo need to add in bicep curl yet. Stick with the simple entry level program for at least 12 weeks. Then decide what to change by then. Taking on too much at the beginning will either wear you out too fast or will cause imbalances. (training your becks and biceps too much more than your back and shoulders will cause you to round out and create problems later on.
If you want to add extra stuff to the work out add mobility exercises.

Sorry its hard to tell because its from my local deli counter and not sure about exact amounts going in

thegreatiam

zweton wrote: »

Sorry its hard to tell because its from my local deli counter and not sure about exact amounts going in

You said chicken and boiled eggs. Cant count the eggs in a deli?

lol, Id would suggest packing your own meals. that way you know how much is in them.

Alternatively just ask the deli staff to weight it for you.

3rd option, get some scales and weigh it yourself. you only need to do this once or twice. from then on you can judge how much is in there by sight.

Learn how to eyeball food by weight. it will help you in the long run f you arent preparing your own food.