Advice Wanted

[Tweaked]

Ok, Im not really a new member, but I signed up a few years ago, had a plan, and failed to follow through with it. Well here I am again, this time more determined than the last I hope. I am not a body builder and dont intend to ever be a body builder, but what i am looking for is to lose a little weight, gain a little muscle. Before I started excercising again, I was up to about 170lbs. I am now down to 162 and dropped a few percentage points on my body fat. My short term goals is to get myself down to 150lbs and lower my bodyfat % to around 15%.

So far progress has been pretty steady and I have been charting the last two weeks with one of those rinky dink fat monitoring scales. You can see my progress at the link below

http://www.wowreview.com/index.htm

Any eating advice, excercise advice etc welcome. As you can see I'm only about 4 pounds shy of my targeted LBM, so I'm not focusing too much on weights, although it is a small part of my weekly routine.

Thanks for Reading
Tweaked

PS: The 150lb 15% goal is a short term goal and I wish to continue to lower my bf percent. Just setting the bar where its at now so the goal is just within my grasps.

 

[Pylon]

Aloha! Good luck on your goals!

 

[BulkMeUp]

Any eating advice, excercise advice etc welcome. As you can see I'm only about 4 pounds shy of my targeted LBM, so I'm not focusing too much on weights, although it is a small part of my weekly routine.
.

To fix your diet, the best place to start is the sticky 'guide to...'.

Dont worry about getting huge. It dosent 'just happen'. So keep lifting. If you dont focus on a proper weight training program, you will not only loose fat but also muscle. So i suggest that you increase it from being a small part of your routine. You could do something like a 3day split (legs, push, pull) + 3days cardio.

 

[Tweaked]

thanks for the words of advice. How many times a week should I be working each part of my body, right now Im doing upper body 3 times a week, ie chest, shoulders, bi's, tris and 2 times a week im doing various leg excercises.

I also just bought a bicycle and started to ride it to/from work 5.5 miles each way. Also after weights i do about 20 minutes on the threadmill or stationary bike at moderate speed. Am I overdoing it?

Also with regards to my diet, I dont even know where to begin. Right now ive been restricting my calories. I used to be a huge fast food junkie, burgers, fries, cola, the whole deal. Now I am consuming a tuna sandwich in the morning, a protien shake mixture/non-fat milk. For lunch I eat a nice size chef salad consisting of lettuce, slices of ham, a little grated cheese, and a boiled egg. I toss the salad dressing since its full of fat calories. For dinner I drink a protien shake, and if Im still hungry, Ill eat one of those frozen tv dinners, the lean ones that they are selling now. I picked out the ones with the highest protien ratio to fats and carbs. Am I eating too little if im trying to lose weight?

Thanks for any other advice.

 

[Tweaked]

Another quick question, would i be better off on a carb restricted diet that would put me into ketosis?

 

[Emma-Leigh]

Hey!

Congratulations on your progress so far!

And bump on what has been said already - you don't just 'get huge' by accident! You usually have to work long and hard at it.

For your diet - the sticky is a good place to start. But simple things work best so that means making sure your calorie intake/food intake, matches your requirements... At the moment it sounds like you might not be eating enough (although it is impossible to tell if you do not keep an accurate record... MANY people under-estimate how much they are eating). But, for example, a protein shake (depending on what is in it) is not a good dinner. Neither are those frozen meals. So you might want to consider changing some of these habits.

Keep things clean and eat a well balanced diet of NATURAL foods (unprocessed is best) - basically if you can pick it, grow it, hunt it or fish it then it is usually ok. That means make sure you get enough protein, carbs and fats. Foods like vegetables (the more the better), fruits (yes, these are good), legumes (beans, chick-peas, lentils), grains (whole or rolled or their brans), lean proteins (seafood, lean meats, game meats), nuts/seeds (linseeds and walnuts esp.) and fat-free dairy (1% cottage cheese, skim milk) should be the centrals.

Things like processed foods (breads, cereals, pre-packaged meals, bagels etc) are not very beneficial. Not only are they usually high in calories - and usually sugar or saturated fats, but they will not usually fill you up - and will leave you hungry and more likely to overeat. They are also void of many natural nutrients that you find in unrefined foods (like fibre, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals/phytonutrients).

You should also try to get a complete protein in each meal. This will help keep your full, help stabilise blood glucose/blood insulin, provide you with essential amino acids should you need them and also increase thermogenesis (albeit slightly).

Lastly, drink LOTS of water and limit other beverages to things like tea (esp. green) or occasional diet drinks and coffee.

In terms of your exercise - if you check out the exercise forum I am sure you will find lots of good advice.

Another quick question, would i be better off on a carb restricted diet that would put me into ketosis?

I would suggest against it - Not if you are looking to gain lean mass at the same time....

You are better off just restricting your carbs (limiting refined carbs, focusing on high fibre/low GI carbs and targeting your carbs around workouts), but still eating enough to keep yourself out of ketosis (which has a lot of negatives in terms of gaining lean mass).

 

[Tweaked]

Well its been about two weeks and I dropped down to around 155lbs and also dropped another couple percent in bf. I decided to stop logging my weight and bf daily as I was as I think it was just a distraction from my real goals of looking better vs looking better on according to a scale. Also i think the margin for error on those fat scales are quite significant because of water weight and my drinking habits on the weekends. I notice ill drop 1-2% just by drinking a few alcoholic beverages the night before I weight in.

All that stuff aside, I have dropped a belt notch within those two weeks. Been lifting regularly and eating as best I can. Still a little shy on the calories, but hopefully that will change soon as I shift from a weight loss, to a muscle gain plan.

So as I near my 150 target, I am starting to increase my protien intake. Also stopped taking this tight supplement that has synephrine in it because I have been hearing some bad things about the gugglesterones that are also in it. Instead, im going to be taking some creatine ethyl ester, and zma at night. Anyone have any opinions on CEE or ZMA?