Just got myself a weight bench and weights - trying to lose small beer gut

The Wild Bunch

Hi guys

As the title says, I've just invested in a weight bench and 60kg of weights. I'm 6'2 and 13 and a half stone, and am generally happy with my appearance save for a smallish gut thats developed. I'm putting this down to beer solely as over the last 2 months I've completely cut out bread and a lot of carbs.

Just wondering is there a particular workout regime I should concentrate on with the weight bench to have maximum results as I'm completely new to this and don't even know where to begin

Cheers

syklops

Google starting strength.

Right Turn Clyde

You were looking for advice about this topic before, and you received some good advice. Have you taken any of it on board? Have you stopped, or cut down, on your alcohol intake? Post up a two-day sample diet and be as specific as possible.

The Wild Bunch

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

You were looking for advice about this topic before, and you received some good advice. Have you taken any of it on board? Have you stopped, or cut down, on your alcohol intake? Post up a two-day sample diet and be as specific as possible.

Thanks for your reply.

Reduced the alcohol to 1 night a week (6 pints of Coors Light)

Typical day is usually

Morning: Black coffee, 3 eggs (scrambled), banana

Lunch: latte, banana, yoghurt, homemade bolognese or lasagne

Dinner: 2 chicken fillets diced and oven baked, 6 baby jacket potatoes, baked beans

Snack of popcorn or cornflakes in the evening

Right Turn Clyde

Okay, I'm no expert. In fact, I've just requested a piece of advice myself because I'm desperately out of shape. However, I know a little bit about what foods to avoid because I've done all of this before. I guess my trouble isn't knowing what not to eat, my trouble is going ahead and eating it anyway!

First things first, there's no vegetables there at all! That's not a good sign of things to come. Baked beans (navy beans) and potatoes do not count toward your vegetable requirement.

Watch your sugar intake. Cornflakes, yoghurts, baked beans and lasagne/bolognese sauces are all loaded with sugar. Low-fat yogurts are low in fat, but high in just about everything else.

Have some natural yogurt and berries, learn how to make a nice pasta sauce from scratch, and switch the beans for steamed vegetables, particularly broccoli. Try some home-toasted nuts or seeds instead of the cornflakes, but watch your portion sizes.

Eggs get a bad rep but they're fine in moderation. I probably wouldn't have three every day but I know there's plenty of people that would disagree with me. And the baked chicken fillets are good and healthy, so keep that up.

I asked you to be specific because it's the details that count. 'Bolognese' is simply a type of sauce. You're not telling me what you're having with it. If it's fatty mince fried up with vegetable oil and served with 100g of white pasta then you're barking up the wrong tree. Also, if you are having pasta during the day, then you shouldn't be eating 6 jacket potatoes in the evening. Not unless you're on some sort of high energy exercise routine, which you're not.

You don't look like you're on a low-carb diet to be honest, and I think you're consuming too much processed food and sugar. And with the exception of a single banana, you're not contributing anything towards your fruit and vegetable needs. That's not the basis of a good diet. You need to start again. Re-read the replies to your earlier thread on here, and then have a good read of all of the advice in the Nutrition 101 section. There's plenty of advice on there from people that know a lot more about diet and exercise than I ever will.

Right Turn Clyde

I was wrong to say that you shouldn't be having pasta during the day and another source of carbs in the evening. I'd just watch the portion sizes and stay away from white pasta.

Oregano_State

Calories in < calories out

That's all it will take for you to lose your gut. Be aware however that you cannot spot-remove fat. The face and limbs will usually lose fat before the abdomen for most people, but it's a total body process.

At 6' 2" and 13.5 stone, you're not too much overweight, so if you keep the same calorie intake as you have currently, while increasing exercise you should lose a little weight, while losing fat and gaining muscle.

Log everything you eat for a week on the myfitnesspal app. It will help point out how where you need to improve. Best of luck.

Lee_Torre

I'm currently on an intermittent fasting protocol, I eat my food within an 8-hour window and train fasted. For example between 12pm and 8pm, on gym days I eat between 2pm and 10 pm because of my fasted training that takes place at about 12:30pm on workout days.

I definitely suggest full-body workouts 3-4 times a week and a GREAT full body exercise to build muscle and lose fat at the same time is the barbell clean and squat. I do 7 sets of 12 at the beginning of my workout, then go do some leg specific work like squats or leg press and 15 mins of cardio afterwards.

Eat high protein and don't cut out fats but keep them relatively low. Use a calorie calculator to find out the amount of calories you need per day to reach your goals.