Diet, Nutrition and SupplementationPost here for supplement reviews or nutritional advice. If you're trying to get "ripped abz" THIS is where you should be.
Ok i am a 21 yr old who is clearly doing something wrong; my weekly workout is as follows.
Mon, Tues, Thurs: Swim 2.5km in 55mins @8am
Wed: Run for 55 mins @ 8miles/hr on cross country treadmill
Fri, Sat: mountain bike 16 miles
Every day: weighted abs (2 sets of 30@ 10kg)
leg raises (60)
40 pressups
2.5min elbow raise stance
i eat a 50 kcal yoghurt@ 6am
300kcal cereal bars and 250ml non fat milk, apple @10.30
300kcal sandwich @2pm
pear @5pm
lots of salad at night
75g brown rice, lots of veg, 200g of lean poultry, salmon or tuna and a 100kcal yoghurt @ 7.45pm
i am an office worker so apart from a 1hr wander at lunch and a 10 min walk to and from work, i sit pretty much all day apart from my exercise.
I dont think i can cut any more food out of my diet comfortably, as i am running on the bare minimum anyway, yet i cant seem to burn any of my stomach fat: my arms and legs are an lean as they can be from swimming, running and riding, but my stomach is flabby.
btw over the past 3 years i have dropped from 280lbs to as little as 155 in the summer of 2004. since starting to work in june 2004 i have increased in weight (mainly fat i think) to 163lb. i am desperatre to get lean. where am i going wrong? more exercise? less food? no carbs?
Well I'm no expert but I think most of the regulars here are going to say to eat more/better and that you need to switch out some of that cardio for some weight training... you might gain weight on the scale but your body fat percentage will go down.
Let see what they say though. [img]smile.gif[/img]
thnkyou very much for welcome: i absolutely hate weight training: i find it interminably boring, and in the past, when i have done it i have had no noticeable difference in what i can lift over a 6month period. am very reluctant to do it again. but any advice is welcome
Perhaps some of the tummy "fat" is actually just loose skin. I went from 200 to 172 and I have some loose skin on my abdomen. I'm afraid the only way to tighten it will be to add muscle. That's my intention.
Or surgery of course...but I aint doing that.
ps - results from weight training are not fast...you have to be patient and you have to read everything in the forum
I'm not certain of that myself. And have wondered the same. The way I see it..I'll just keep working to lower my BF%. Once in or near the single digits...I figure anything left there is skin.
My BF is not that low yet...so I'm not certain that all mine is skin either...but I like to THINK so....
It's not loose skin, per se. It's skin that's still be held out there by layers of subcutaneous fat that is not yet gone. Often times, when you lose a lot of fat, you lose the visceral fat at a faster rate than the subcutaneous fat.
Continue to lose fat and the skin will "tighten up" when there's less fat to keep it from clinging tightly up to the muscles.
I've lost 65 lbs, and while I still don't have a six pack, I've had plenty of loose skin in the belly. I kept losing and now it's a lot less "loose" and more like "traditional" flab.
As to lifting being boring... Perhaps you're not doing a routine that's interesting. Or, perhaps there's no routine at all. Perhaps you've tried routines designed by guys in your gym. These routines often take an hour and a half to two hours to complete. That's a long time. A lot (and usually more than enough) can be accomplished in a routine that lasts 30-45 minutes, 3 times per week.
People have great results from routines that rarely change. Others choose routines that changes every few weeks and/or are different on each day of the week (I like these ones). The constant change of routine keeps things interesting.
So, let us know what makes lifting boring to you, what you've tried, what you liked, and what you didn't. Maybe we can guide you to a routine that will get you going.
Also, some folks don't want to start lifting because they think they'll have to do it, at 4 or 5 times per week, forever, to keep things up. That's not true. If you get to a point where you're happy with your new build, a 2 day a week, short routine can maintain your muscle, giving you back plenty of time for other activities.
Not that it’s a bad diet (the foods are good foods for the most part) but it doesn’t suite your goal of maximizing your lean body mass/lower bf%. The same goes for your workout.
Diet: More protein, all day. I would like to see eggs, cottage cheese, lean meat throughout the day. Supplement with whey shakes if you have to. More veggies, once again all day. Toss some salsa on a breakfast burrito, grilled veggies on your sandwich at lunch, etc…There is no mention of good polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats. Add some almonds, and walnuts to your yogurt; make your salad with olive-oil and vinegar, sauté some of those earlier mentioned veggies with garlic olive oil (yum). The idea is to stoke up your metabolism by feeding your body with protein (higher thermic effect) and also making sure your muscles don’t catabolize from all that cardio.
Workout: Throw some intervals into the mix, better yet High Intensity Intervals. You will increase your metabolism throughout the day by adding these. Sorry, you Have To J start lifting heavy weights. I’m not kidding, it’s imperative. Follow Lost Dogs advice and find a program for 2 days a week then follow up with some HIIT. You’ll see yourself get stronger and leaner in no time….Really!
thanks guys, i am gonna start by paying more attention to nutrition timing. atm i am not giving myself enough carbs after workout, and then stuffing myself with carb at night to get myself through the next day's session. i am gonna try some recovery shakes after workout and then concentrate on more healthy fats and protein in my diet.
atm i have almost no fat and about 100-150g protein a day. that is all about to change.
when i used to swim it was very easy to swim efficiently and not push your HR up, the same was happening when i ran outdoors.
now i run on a treadmill on a x-country programme and really boost my HR- the effects have been a much less lethargic swim- i really go for it now.
but HIIT is so nasty, I often get moments at the peak of the programme when i debate whether i can get to the next trough and regain some oxygen [img]smile.gif[/img]
still, great feeling when you "beat" the programme- a moment of pure achievement.
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