matt85

Im trying to get fitter and drop a bit of weight because my weight has started to stagnate a bit. Im running or playing squash to the point of exhaustion nearly every day because its something than im really starting to enjoy. Im feeling much fitter but i feel as though i should be a bit lighter than i am as its not really going anywhere.

My diet currently is something like this:

Weekdays:

Special K (normal bowl) with semi-skinned milk

Tuna mayo and lettuce baguette
Chargrill chicken sandwich (from Greggs)

PorK Chop with Pasta OR Tuna/Prawn Salad OR Chicken and Pasta OR occasionally (maybe once a fortnight or so) low-fat oven chips and fish fingers (or similar), OR jacket potato with tuna OR beans on toast/ poached eggs on toast

(you get the picture)

Weekends:

Saturday-Tuna/ BLT sandwich for dinner (no breakfast usually)

Large Margherita with Chips, garlic Or parmo (my weekly sh*te meal)

Maybe a couple of pints (2-3)

Sunday- Bacon sandwiches (grilled)

Something similar to a weeknight for tea.

Maybe some doritos/pringles or chocolate or similar.


As well as this i eat a tidy amount of fruit and i only drink diluted orange and water. No coke at all anymore. Is there anything other than the obvious crap that is not very good for me? Im not a dietician im afraid so i dont really know.

Any advice much appreciated.


Cheers

lightning101

It all healthy enough - its just overloaded with carbs.


Swap the special K for egg (omelette, Boiled, Poached etc)

Get rid of bread and rolls, cut down on pasta and rice.

You will lose weight in no time. Only lifelong athletes require huge amounts of complex carbs.

messiah

white bread is a no-no.

Pork is one of the fattiest meats you can have - and mayo is virtually 100% fat IIRC.

Try apple juice - the pectin in it is an appetite surpressant, and also travels quite quickly to your muscles to fuel them.

My opinion to losing weight is simple - if you're active enough, you can eat what you want and not gain weight.

When you run, give yourself a set route - and try to beat your time each time you go, when you think you can't improve - up the distance. you could also try fell-running, supposedly the no.1 fat burning sport.

I think the sports like squash are good as the competetiveness keeps you going longer.

matt85

Ah, so it appears to be the bread and carbs then!!

So its not the exercise thats the problem its the diet by the looks of things

Right, so that leads me to another question then.. what would you recommend replacing the bread with in order to lose a bit of weight? Bearing in mind i do still need a bit of energy as im pretty active? (And im a crap cook!!)

Any suggestions?

Cheers

ozzy

Just be careful with the exercise. Your body needs appropriate time to rest and recover. Also if you exercise at too high an intensity every day, you'll just fatigue yourself and do more harm than good.

High intensity also burns carbs, so it'll do little to actuall burn fat if you just run flat-out all the time.

You need to do long, slow runs (more like jogs) where you can get all the energy from fat stores.

Your body can only store so much glycogen in the muscles. A great source to replensih this is from carbs, but if you consume too much your body can't store it all as glycogen, so it stores it as fat.

You need to look closely at your calorie intake, exactly what exercise you do day-to-day and see if you're just eating too much.

Do you have a heart rate monitor?

Stefan

matt85

No i dont have a heart-rate monitor but ill consider geting one if their are benefits to be had.

The sort of exercise i do tends to be squash (maybe 3 times a week), which is pretty much 100mph as you'd expect. And the fact that im crap at it means i have to do plenty of runnning about for the ball!! Aside from that i like running, maybe 3 times a week where i tend to run about 1-2 miles then do some sprints ( 3 sets of 5 sprints to 18 yard line, 3 sets of 5 3/4 pace to halfway line on football pitch, 3 sets of 5 nice brisk jog to end of football pitch. Then ill have a slow jog back home so about 3/4 miles with some sprinting. The jogging is maybe 7/8 minute mile pace so just steady stuff at the minute. And ill also play 2 or 3 rounds of golf a week if that makes any difference ( 10-12 miles carrying a bloody heavy bag!).

Fitness doesnt really appear to be the problem i just need to drop about a stone really so it mainly the diet by the looks of things.

ozzy

Diet and fitness go hand in hand. It takes a good 60 min workout to burn anything above 500 calories.

Personally, I would bin the milage counting as it means nothing unless your training for a specific distance - concentrate on time. When I go for a run or jog, I'll set a minimum time of 30 mins for a fast run (6-7 min/mile), an 1 hour for steady pace (7-8min/mile) and 2hrs for slow stuff (6-7 min/mile).

A 30 min 5-mile run for me would burn 300-400 calories at most, but it would be great for my fitness. If you want to lose weight, drop the intensity and exercise for longer.

Looking at your example, the 1-2 mile run at the start would be a warm-up. The sprinting will work your oxygen uptake (VO2 max), increase your bodies ability to flush away lactic acid (stuff that makes your legs feel heavy) and make your heart/lungs work more efficiently. Then the 1-2 mile slow jog home would be a cool-down.

To be honest, although the speed is decent you're not really doing much to burn fat.

My advice would be to do 1-2 sessions of the sprinting (keep the jogs in either side) and add a longer couple of sessions of steady-state running. Then add one session where you go for a nice long, slow run.

I found the sprinting help with my Squash, but if you want to last the distance you need to build in some endurance and stamina with the longer runs.

Up until recently I would do an hours running on the treadmill immediately before I met up with the lads from work for an hours squash and I hardly do much sprinting work.

Stefan

TelBoy

LOL, i haven't read the replies, but mayo, bacon, chips.. etc??!

Lordy lordy!!

ozzy

Yeah, but that's excellent for an Atkins diet

Let's not all go there again though

matt85

Cheers for that. I thnk the diet has to change quite a bit really but im sure i can sort that out and i shouldnt have any problems fitting any longer runs in either because time is somethng i have a lot of at the minute.

Ill definately give all that a go.













Starting tomorrow

Drunken Bungle Whore

Just one word of caution - I've recently been trying to shed a few pounds and have upped the intake of fruit, raw veg and salad. All I can say...is...erm....it can make you very....erm....regular Best pop an extra 4 pack of Andrex in the trolly too!

milo

yeah, that diet isnt going to lose you any fat unless the quantities you're consuming of each are tiny.. and even then you'll be losing mostly muscle.

drop the crap from the diet, such as beer, pizza, doritos etc etc. take in wholemeal pasta and rice as your carb sources.. but in limited quantities. take in plenty of protein from good sources like chicken and tuna.

diet is the key to fat loss. exercise is the key to physical fitness.