Changing my diet, and toning up.

Hollister11

Hi All,

To introduce this topic, I wan't to say that I have been following slimming world since January 2015. It has worked wonders for me. I have lost 4Stone, and I now weight 11ST 7lb at a height of 5'10 (I'm male). I have went from wearing XXL to a mixture between M/L, and from wearing 38" jeans to 32". I'm thrilled with the results.

My issue now is that my weight has stagnated. I can't loose any more. I want to get a flat stomach, but I would need to loose another stone to do that. I am sick of Slimming world food now as well. They encourage you to eat loads of carbs such as pasta, and rice. I always feel tired and lack energy after eating this.

I need a new diet, and also help creating a workout plan. I get so confused when I go researching this topic, as website are constantly contradicting each other on what not to eat.

Before I show my diet, it's important to note that I'm a Vegetarian, and I will not eat Meat or Fish.

Breakfast:

• Two slices wholemeal toast. Mushrooms, Tomatoes and an Egg, fried in a low cal spray.
• 30g Bran Flakes with an Apple, Bannana, Pear and mixed Berries.

Lunch

• Pasta with 2 teaspoons of Butter, and loads of Spinach, Rocket, and Salad stuff like Peppers and Cucumber. (I would have this nearly everyday.)
• Sandwich - Wholemeal bread, Lettuce, Cucumber, Pepper, 1 slice reduced fat Cheese, salad cream.

Dinner

• Pasta and Salad (like above)
  
• Risotto and Salad
• Bolognese with Quorn mince

Snacks

• 100Kcal Twix
• Fruit
• Fat Free Yogurt
• Tea * 5 cups with sweetener and skim milk

Exercise
Treadmill (Half hour, at an average speed of 9 3 days a week.
Kettlebells - I'm confused at what exercises are useful
Football 2 hours a week.

As you can see, I'm lost, and all over the place in regards to a proper diet, and exercise. My goal is to have the beginnings of a 6 pack by the New Year,

marialouise

Well done on the weight loss!! I'm just gonna write a bit about my thoughts, not everyone will agree but anyway that's what forums are for. It's great you're ambitious about improving further, but do be mindful that a 6 pack does not come easy. Diet, however, will be mostly responsible for dropping body fat, combined with a good strength routine. We all have abdominal muscles, they are just covered by layers of fat in most of us, so the goal for most people is fat loss (not necessarily weight loss, it's more than just a number on the scale).

Your diet is extremely carb heavy. I know you're a vegetarian but I don't see any protein in there, apart from quorn and an egg, a bit of cheese. You need to get way more protein in there.
Toast, cereal, pasta, bread, pasta, twix, these are all just carbs carbs carbs. There is nothing wrong with carbs but you moaned that slimming world 'make' you eat loads of them, but if this is your daily diet then you're definitely going to have to look for alternatives to increase your protein intake. Also, there's nothing wrong with fats, so no need for reduced fat cheese. Most low fat yoghurts are full of sugar, the only ones I would eat regularly would be Greek Yoghurt (Liberte, Fage, Glenisk etc) which has a very high protein content.

So you need to eat more protein (from eggs, nuts, greek yoghurt, beans/peas/quinoa, cheese), and reduce your carb intake accordingly. Healthy fats are found in eggs, and nuts as well as avocado, coconut oil etc.

I could write forever on this but three things:
1. We lose weight if we eat fewer calories than our body burns. If we eat more, we gain. If we eat exactly the amount, we maintain. So the concept of "calories in vs calories out" is key to weight loss. You sound like you're just eating at maintenance calories which is grand, but if you're looking to lose more weight, you need to cut calories. MyFitnessPal is a very useful app where you weigh your food, type it in and it tells you how much you've eaten and breaks it down into carbs/protein/fat (the default goals for these are kind of funny though). You tell it how much weight you want to lose and over what time period. Tracking your calories is a very simple and effective way for people with no clue on nutrition to lose weight. The app does so much for the work for you.
Macros (protein, carb, fat) come after calories - you want to make sure you're getting enough of all of them to fuel your body. Vegetarians usually are a bit behind in protein, so be mindful to try to get enough. MFP will help you. You can eventually look into supplements if you're still not getting enough (protein powders added to greek yoghurt, protein bars instead of twix etc)
2. Learn about what is in different foods. Take time to read something basic about nutrition, even try this link to get you started: https://authoritynutrition.com/how-many-calories-per-day/
I'm not going to tell you a high protein, high fat low carb diet is the best or only way to lose weight, it's just one way. You could eat creme eggs all day and still lose weight if you ate them within your calories for the day, but you'd be very hungry and feel rubbish, so it's worth investigating how you can get loads of nutritious and delicious food for fewer cals.
3. Get a Personal Trainer. They will show you how to train to get results. On this note, you could also just hire a nutritionist, but it will be best for you in the long term to educate yourself on proper nutrition too. I got a training plan from my nutritionist (you can also get some from Bodybuilding.com) and just looked up YouTube videos of the exercises on it (you can also see videos on bodybuilding.com). If you are confused about kettlebells though, I don't think you need help making a training plan with strangers from the internet, I think someone should go through the proper exercises with you .

2xj3hplqgsbkym

Agree with above.
Some suggestions to improve your protein intake- 3 bean salad, bean stew, hummus, add lentils to your bolognaise, lentil and cauliflower curry, Dahl, pea soup, bean burgers, omelette, crustless mini quiches, egg and banana pancakes etc...

Dtp1979

Penelope Cool Taskmaster wrote: »

Agree with above.
Some suggestions to improve your protein intake- 3 bean salad, bean stew, hummus, add lentils to your bolognaise, lentil and cauliflower curry, Dahl, pea soup, bean burgers, omelette, crustless mini quiches, egg and banana pancakes etc...

And whey protein