Critique of diet and workout program

pvt6zh395dqbrj · 02-09-2019 7:06pm #1

Hello,

I am 32 years old, 5'5 and I weight 80kg. I would prefer to weigh 65kg but years of neglect and takeaway 5 times a week will do that to a man. Here is what I've been trying over the last few weeks to build a more sustainable, healthy lifestyle. Aiming to lose 2kg per month.

Diet.

Breakfast: 2 Weetabix with semi-skimmed milk. Black coffee, small glass of water.

Morning Snack: Mid sized bannana

Lunch: Prepared salad: Handful of quinoa, handful of spinach, handful of lettuce, handful of sugarsnap peas, third of a pepper chopped, 60g cooked turkey chunks. Apple.

Afternoon snack: Small mandarin. Black coffee.

Pre-gym snack: Handful of grapes, handful of almonds, 30g cooked turkey chunks.

Dinner (example): Homemade turkey curry with approx. 200g turkey, half a cup of rice (uncooked), a whole pepper and half an onion. Curry paste from a chinese super market.

Post dinner snack: Slice of bread half buttered with peanut butter, half nutella. Large glass of water.

I also try to drink water throughout the day.

Workouts:

Monday: Interval training - 10 minutes on the treadmill with 4 x 30 second bursts at 15kph with breaks in between where I jog.

Tuesday: 3x15 at 35kg on the pushup bar, 3x15 at 20kg on the pushout bar, 3x15 at 35kg on the rowing weights machine, 3 x 15 assisted pullups and dips (assisted by approx 50kg).

Wednesday: Rest.

Thursday: Run 1 mile at 9kph.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: At home 20min abs workout. Dip planks etc.

Sunday: Run 5k at a self-selected pace. Normally I run 5k in 35 minutes.

As well as that I cycle 4 miles each way to work every day (including weekends).

It's taken me a while to find a diet / routine that works for me and is adaptable etc. Still struggling with cravings, succumbing to the odd takeaway etc but it's been massively reduced. Cronometer tells me I'm at a 500 calorie deficit daily (on average) and macros look ok, but salt is a big problem.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Mellor · 02-09-2019 11:12pm

Looks very low in fat.

paw patrol · 05-09-2019 7:22pm

fair play for getting out there and training and certainly i'm not pissing on your chips by any means cos I respect anybody who trains regularly but I think you could do more training.

On Monday
a session of 4 x 30sprints with jogging for 10mins isn't a huge amount , are you building up for more sprints? or could you add something else to this.

On Thurs a 1 mile run isn't
that heroic..i think you could do more stuff here or something else as well.

your Tuesday is an upper body weights session and that seems to be it for the week. There is no balance with that.

The abs session is fine but why stop at 20mins you could supplement it with other bodyweight exercises like squat/pushups etc.,.. assuming you don't have equipment at home.

5k run in itself is fine.

in short I think your week could do with some structure as in a week's plan rather than what looks like a few random sessions.

If you calories are on point and your food sources is mostly healthy then I think most diets are fine.

Once you don't do extreme stuff like live on apples alone 24/7 - you'll be fine. There is always room for improvement but imo sometimes it's not worth the hassle but if your training gets more strenuous and you advance you prob have to revisit your diet.
your diet/training being decent should be able to handle an occasional takeaway so I wouldn't stress it.

GalwayGrrrrrl · 05-09-2019 7:29pm

The 10 min run and 1 mile run are very short workouts. Are you doing other activity on those days? How much walking do you do? Try aiming for 10,000 steps per day, spread through the day to improve your calorie deficit and general cardiovascular fitness. Also, you can run 5k in 35 mins which is good. Have a look at training plans which go from 5k to 10k to gradually increase the length of the weekend run.
Well done on starting the plan, getting into a routine is the hardest bit and you are right to start slow and build up.

pvt6zh395dqbrj · 07-09-2019 10:51am

Thanks for the responses everyone, it's very helpful. In addition to the gym work, I'm on my feet all day in work, and I cycle everywhere.

I guess this workout came from trial and error. I used to do lots more on Monday, for example, but then I'd find I'm either too tired or mentally not in the right place to go to the gym on Tuesday. This meant my gym days became rarer and more sporadic. Anyway, in the last two weeks I've added rowing machine to the Monday workout, core strength work on Tuesdays, and cross training on Thursdays. Hopefully I can build up more.

bladespin · 07-09-2019 11:29am

Why are you working abs specifically on Saturday? A full body would be much better.

Diet will be the main driver for weight/fat loss, once you can stick to that results will come.

The workouts look bit light on some days, 10mins won’t do much at all, aim for 30 at least.

Best of luck btw.

j@utis · 14-09-2019 6:24pm

If I were you, I'd hit the gym 3x per week and do some serious weight lifting following full body program, and leave cardio for off-gym days.
Your diet seems to be a bit light on protein, add a portion of protein to breakfast, if you know your macros, try to aim for 1.5-2grams, better closer to 2grams of protein per 1kg of body weight.

paddythere · 17-03-2020 3:46am

Your diet is not too bad, although i'd change your supper to something healthier and with more protein like a large tin of tuna

Now, your fitness program is not nearly enough. You have to push yourself a lot harder with the volume of cardio and weights otherwise you wont build much muscle and wont burn enough fat.

Cill94 · 17-03-2020 1:18pm

Much the same as what others above have said.

You might want to add some more variety to your diet. You're likely to get pretty sick of all that turkey.

As far as training, you'd be best just following a well-established resistance training programme as opposed to trying to put your own together. What you have above is lacking a lot in terms of a balance of work for different muscles. Here's a link with beginner programmes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/adwxe3/training_tuesdays_beginner_programs/

partyguinness · 17-03-2020 1:28pm

The diet is fine in some respects but not in others.

A lot of carbs and sugar going on there especially with the fruit which means your body is not tapping into the fat reserves.

Short sprints will not do anything for weight loss by themselves. You need to get into long slow runs. I mean 45 min to 2 hours and very slow and on an empty stomach. 3-4 times a week.

Do you really need the post dinner bread, peanut butter and nutella? That is a red flag straight away. Try 90% dark chocolate insetad. If you have cravings I would give pure protein shakes a go...as in 85-95% pure protein.

bladespin · 18-03-2020 3:27pm

partyguinness wrote: »

Short sprints will not do anything for weight loss by themselves. You need to get into long slow runs. I mean 45 min to 2 hours and very slow and on an empty stomach. 3-4 times a week.

By themselves no, the debate rages but for me the higher impact wins out on calorie burn and fitness in the HIIT vs LISS battle, 20 to 25 mins sprinting will do what hours worth of steady state can, it's faster to do and less boring too.

partyguinness · 18-03-2020 3:38pm

bladespin wrote: »

By themselves no, the debate rages but for me the higher impact wins out on calorie burn and fitness in the HIIT vs LISS battle, 20 to 25 mins sprinting will do what hours worth of steady state can, it's faster to do and less boring too.

I think it should be all embracing. Long runs with HIIT, weights. What I have found is that quite a few people jump straight into HIIT and find it very tough and give up after a few weeks. As you said it is faster and shorter but a lot tougher. Of course some people expect instant results and get disheartened.

Now I run 5 times a week and I also do speedwork every week on a track say 6 x 1km or 1600 then 10 x 400 etc etc. It is bloody tough. I see many arrive once and never again turn up.

Judging by the OP's post I am guessing that she has no history and is starting from zero so my logic is that starting gently with say running with a running club she can then graduate and incorporate HIIT and general work in the gym when she gets a better feel for it and dare I say enjoy it.

In other words, you are more likely to stick to friendly long runs than HIIT by themselves. Just my observations.

There is no quick fix and she should allow herself a good 9-12 months with a complete reboot.

SportPhysio · 18-03-2020 3:42pm

Great to see all the knowledge and advice out there. We have a very health literate population in Ireland.

In sport medicine at elite level there is a large focus now on player availability. Another way you might look at that is "players being fit to train consistently". It is less towards things that might change the dial 1 or 2% and more towards is this athlete able to train consistently.

I would get that right first with any client or athlete that I am dealing with. Once you are training consistently and consistent with your diet over a number of months then you can look at the 1 or 2%ers that can make a further difference.

I see so many athletes who get stuck in the trees with too narrow a focus. Instead keep it simple.
Ask yourself what are the barriers that I have to eating healthier?
What are the barriers that I have to "turning up" at the gym/pitch etc?

Once these questions have been answered and worked on then you can get into the details.

All the best with it - and well done on your work so far

paddythere · 18-03-2020 6:49pm

partyguinness wrote: »

I think it should be all embracing. Long runs with HIIT, weights. What I have found is that quite a few people jump straight into HIIT and find it very tough and give up after a few weeks. As you said it is faster and shorter but a lot tougher. Of course some people expect instant results and get disheartened.

Now I run 5 times a week and I also do speedwork every week on a track say 6 x 1km or 1600 then 10 x 400 etc etc. It is bloody tough. I see many arrive once and never again turn up.

Judging by the OP's post I am guessing that she has no history and is starting from zero so my logic is that starting gently with say running with a running club she can then graduate and incorporate HIIT and general work in the gym when she gets a better feel for it and dare I say enjoy it.

In other words, you are more likely to stick to friendly long runs than HIIT by themselves. Just my observations.

There is no quick fix and she should allow herself a good 9-12 months with a complete reboot.

What makes you think OP is a she?

partyguinness · 18-03-2020 6:53pm

paddythere wrote: »

What makes you think OP is a she?

My bad. It’s a man. Same points apply.

Alf Veedersane · 18-03-2020 11:29pm

partyguinness wrote: »

Judging by the OP's post I am guessing that she has no history and is starting from zero so my logic is that starting gently with say running with a running club she can then graduate and incorporate HIIT and general work in the gym when

I don't disagree with a lot of what you say but running isn't for everyone. Great it you like it and I definitely think it's worth giving a go but ultimately any form of exercise that someone likes so they will stick to it.

Just a minor point but just sometimes people think that the exercise has to be running and are put off from the start

Mellor · 19-03-2020 12:43am

OP is 6 months old and unlikely to be reading any of the advice

Alf Veedersane · 19-03-2020 8:00am

Mellor wrote: »

OP is 6 months old and unlikely to be reading any of the advice

Impressive they can use the internet at that age though.

bladespin · 19-03-2020 12:06pm

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Impressive they can use the internet at that age though.

That just made my day!

Critique of diet and workout program

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