Newbie Help....

[dali555]

I am new to this forum. I have been on Mens Health for a month now...

I am 35 years old (going to be 36 on Sunday), 240 lbs (just lost 15 pounds before doing the workouts from Mens Health I will describe). 5'10" with muscular legs from years of light lifting when I was in Jr. high etc....
Here is a link to what I look like now..
Photo 7.jpg - Belly Off

I want to cut the fat from my body without going too big muscle wise.... toned more than anything with some build.

I have been working out for a month using HGM routine found on mens health and eating MUCH better than I ever did. I try to eat 2300 cals a day but it has not been easy. I am not a big eater... which is why I am fat... I don't eat enough so I know it stores it as fat...

My day usually consists of
Breakfast:
1.5 cups of kashi cereal with 12 oz of 1% milk
or 3 eggs on whole wheat toast
or Nature's Own Flax and Pumpin cereal
1 Large Dunkin Donuts Coffee cream and 2 sugars

Snack:
Apple
or Orange
or Banana
or Kashi Cocoa Beach

Lunch:
Salad with low fat Balsamic Vinagarette
or
Turkey Sandwich on Whole wheat with lettuce and tomato
or leftovers from dinner the night before

Snack:
Bear Naked Granola
or Apple
or Orange

Dinner ranges... depends on if I cook or my wife.... usually Chicken with veggie (green beans, corn, peas)
or a baked potato with a little butter

Sometimes fish (but I am not a seafood guy by any means)
I also look up recipes from cookinglight.com when I cook

On days I lift I make a PWO which is
2 scoops of ON 100% Whey
1 Banana
4 Ice Cubes
8 oz. 1% milk

and slice of whole wheat toast with Natty PB

My snacks flop around between what I have written...
Just looking for some help here with my newbiness... I have read a lot of posts and love what I am reading from the people on this site. So I figured I would give it a shot and let you guys tear me down and help me build up to the body I need.

Sorry for it being so long....
Thanx for your time,
Marc

 

[Hench]

I try to eat 2300 cals a day but it has not been easy. I am not a big eater... which is why I am fat... I don't eat enough so I know it stores it as fat...

im not the best person on here to help with your diet, but the statement above is wrong, you do not store fat because you dont eat enough. you maybe dont eat enough, but eat a lot of the wrong things and that will store fat. but if you eating reasonably healthy food and getting 2300cals a day you will not store fat. you will lose either fat and muscle, or depending on your training and proportion of protein, carbs and fat in your diet it is possible to lose fat while losing minimal amounts of muscle.

if you are on a calorie restricted diet like the one you have explained above, i wouldnt worry about getting too big, your gona have to train you ass off just to hold on to what muscle you have. as i mentioned im not the best person to help with this, but if you are training consistently and hard i dont think that 2300 cals in a day will be enough for you, youll end up losing a lot of muscle.

also be sure to add a casien protein shake before you go to bed. i dont know when you take the shake described, but if its after training i would try to substitute that milk for water. adding milk to you powder tends to mean it will be absorbed slower by the body, where as after training you want it absorbed as quick as possible, also try and get about 25g of protein before you train along with some complex carbs.

hope ive been of help, built will hopefully be along shortly to go into more detail.

 

[Built]

Dali! You and I share a birthday!

Your calories are indeed far too low to worry about gaining muscle. You WILL get some small newbie gains, but that's in the range of a few ounces of muscle a month while you lose fat, and that only happens for the first few months - enjoy your novice status!

How much protein and how much fat does this work out to, do you know?

 

[dali555]

I workout late at night... between 7:30 to 8:30 on M,W,F. I thought the milk would be better so my muscles could get the protein all night long while I slept. I will switch to water. So should I have a protein drink with 1 scoop of whey with water before my workout to get the 25G protein? I usually eat about an hour to half an hour before I workout though.

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY BUILT! and NICE abs! WOW, impressive! From that pic, whatever you say I will etch in stone at my house

I came up with the number of 2300 because I was told to just maintain I need 2700... that is with my workout routine. So I figured 2200-2300 is good for loosing weight. I don't want to loose muscle... I am lifting and want to gain muscle as well... just lean and not bulky.

Is my diet ok? crap?

What should I be adding or subtracting?


No, I don't know how much fat or protein it works out to.....

 

[Built]

Happy birthday yourself - and thanks for the props on my abs; as a former-fatty, I must tell you what a comfort abs are. I pat them and whisper sweet nothings to them whenever I walk past trays of donuts.

<sigh>

Back to you.

Enter your food on FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal (just get the free version, that's all I do) and post up the numbers that show up beside the pie chart.

We'll start from there.

 

[dali555]

Here will be my intake through lunch today.... I am at work so I know what I will be eating all day....

Calories Eaten Today
grams cals %total
Total: 1343
Fat: 41 368 29%
Sat: 4 32 2%
Poly: 0 1 0%
Mono: 1 10 1%
Carbs: 183 638 50%
Fiber: 24 0 0%
Protein: 68 272 21%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

Tonight is my workout night so not sure on dinner yet, wife is home but if she doesn't cook I will when I get home. Which will be healthier for me

Also I will be having my PWO shake.... should I do a shake also 30 minutes before my workout?

If I had abs like that I would cut the bottom off all my shirts... or just walk around topless ALL the time

 

[Built]

LOL!

Okay, double your protein at least. You should be aiming for well over 200g for the whole day, especially on the low calories (2300) you are running. By all means do the preworkout shake if you have room in your calories to do so.

 

[dali555]

Very cool... but WOW, double my protein? Any ideas on the best protein foods? I will do a pre shake with just one scoop of my ON Whey and 10 oz of water.... I was told by my brother in law to do that anyway... his brother is a fanatic and has very little body fat.... I also have a cousin who competes professionally but, I never talk to him... looooong bad family story

 

[Hench]

I workout late at night... between 7:30 to 8:30 on M,W,F. I thought the milk would be better so my muscles could get the protein all night long while I slept. I will switch to water. So should I have a protein drink with 1 scoop of whey with water before my workout to get the 25G protein? I usually eat about an hour to half an hour before I workout though.

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY BUILT! and NICE abs! WOW, impressive! From that pic, whatever you say I will etch in stone at my house

I came up with the number of 2300 because I was told to just maintain I need 2700... that is with my workout routine. So I figured 2200-2300 is good for loosing weight. I don't want to loose muscle... I am lifting and want to gain muscle as well... just lean and not bulky.

Is my diet ok? crap?

What should I be adding or subtracting?


No, I don't know how much fat or protein it works out to.....

i had a lengthy and detailed post for you, however my computer fu*ked up and i dont have time to re type it. so here it is in shortened form

water with protein powder for quicker absorption by the body after training
milk with protein powder before bed for slower absorption to feed body with protein throughout the night
1 scoop of whey with water will be fine pre workout, be sure to include some complex carbs.
protein intake seems a little low, is quite easy to increase, just add lean meats - chicken, turkey, lean mince meat, and lean cuts of red meat - just not too often
i read on your mens health page that you want to add lean muscle, not bulky muscle. there is not such thing, muscle is muscle, how much you add depends on your diet and training. as built said you will gain some newbie muscle as your body will be shocked by the new training routine, but with the calorie restricted diet that you are following, you really dont need to worry about becoming bulky.

train hard, stick to your diet and you will see results. Good luck!!

 

[dali555]

Thx Moondog

What I meant by lean muscle... which I know is the wrong way of saying it is... cut and lean my body without getting too bulky... like bodybuilders. For now, with my newbie status as Built says , I want to work on my body to be healthier and stronger a to a point of where I won't be embarrassed to take my shirt off.

 

[Built]

You need to be very, very careful about a few things if you don’t want to get all bulky:

• Avoid having good genes.
• Make sure you don't eat enough food to ensure that you GAIN weight.
• Do not - and I cannot emphasize this enough - do NOT stick a gram of test a week into your ass.

Moondog's advice with regard to pre and post workout nutrition and protein powder is sound, but premature while you're still significantly overfat. Re-visit protein powder and post-workout shakes in thirty or forty pounds. For now, just concentrate on being adequately nourished on solid food.

I would urge you to preplan a day on fitday - just log in and plan out a day with the following macros:

250g protein
100g fat (10g from fish oil)
125g carb (25g fibre)
2500 calories

See what food choices you get out of this. And yes, I mean 100g fat.
You will not be getting in a lot of carbohydrate on this plan, so being mindful of moondog's suggestion, target what little starches, fruits and sugars you get to the meal before and the meal after you train.

Can you try this for a day?

 

[dali555]

Didn't exactly make all of them but I got this from what I could eat from my usual list of foods on fitday....

Calories Eaten Today
grams cals %total
Total: 2350
Fat: 66 598 27%
Sat: 15 135 6%
Poly: 10 86 4%
Mono: 18 166 7%
Carbs: 143 488 22%
Fiber: 21 0 0%
Protein: 285 1140 51%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

Cals Fat Carbs Protein
Totals 2350 66 143 285

These numbers include my PWO.....
I know everyone on this site knows this already.... but... I was AMAZED at how much protein there is in Chicken.... and I love Chicken... so great for me!

 

[Built]

Bring the fat up a bit - add in a tablespoon of butter maybe, or some avocado?

 

[dali555]

ok... I can try this... should I stick to this sort of breakdown everyday?
Would mean I would have to find something to take the place of my PWO on days I don't workout....

Not to be a moron... but....

what were you saying when you typed......

Do not - and I cannot emphasize this enough - do NOT stick a gram of test a week into your ass.

What does stick a gram of test mean?

 

[Built]

Anabolic steriods.

 

[dali555]

OH HELL NO!.... not even remotely into any of that crap.

All of that is garbage!

Got me worried for a second there talking about sticking things up my ass....

 

[Built]

And yes, just stick to this basic breakdown for now. You can cycle higher and lower carbs/calories if you like, and I can help you set this up if you want.

For example, you could do this if you lift three days a week (and there are many ways to do this, I'm offering up ONE such approach):

(Based on 3 lifting/HIIT days per week; 4 rest or steady-state cardio days)

Average daily macros:
250g of protein,
101g of fat, and
147g of carbohydrate,
2,500 calories in total.

(3) Lifting/HIIT days:
250g of protein,
90g of fat, and
217g of carbohydrate,
2,679 calories in total.

(4) Rest/SS Cardio days:
250g of protein,
110g of fat, and
94g of carbohydrate,
2,366 calories in total.

I'm keeping your fats a little high and your carbs a little low for satiety. This often works better than higher carb and lower fat while you're still juicy and hence, insulin resistant.

 

[Built]

AAS aren't garbage - they're a decision. And I was being facetious in an effort to assuage your fears of getting "too big". In short, you can't. Even if you really, really wanted to, you probably couldn't.

 

[dali555]

Good


Thank you for everything you have helped me with... I need a lot of help but I will get there.

Only thing though... I do disagree on the steroid thing.... But I don't want to argue about stuff online... just want to get the help I need to make my body healthier and my life better....

Oh and THANX for saying I am JUICY! LMFAO....

 

[XYZ...]

You can lose weight just by changing what you drink, without even touching what you eat.

Okay, first of all, I am little bit confused whether to use the word softest here or I should say one-way to lose extra after reading weight. Decide yourself what I am about to sayâ???¦.

When most of the obese people think about weight loss, then, what they consider which they should take care of?? Exactly, food and their meals. They think about calories but again in terms of food and whatever theyâ??????re used to eat. Itâ??????s good enough as food makes the majority of our diets but diet doesnâ??????t mean just FOOD. There is another aspect of your diet thatâ??????s being neglected by everyone.

Any idea??? Any guesses!!!

Well, I am talking about drinks, especially water. Water doesnâ??????t contain any kind of calories so try to replace everything with water. It may cause some troubles initially, drinking more water than your body is habitual to, and youâ??????re running to the bathroom constantly.â???¦.. But stay with it.

 

[dali555]

Already doing that XYZ... Stopped cold turkey ANY soda.... was drinking diet but that Aspartame crap scared me from that. For the past 6 months or so I drink roughly 3 Liters of water a day and 20 - 40 oz of Green tea... and JUST green tea. I get green tea bags and boil a gal of water... take 10 tea bags and steep... then put in fridge and enjoy for 5-7 days....

Thanx though.....

 

[Merkaba]

Looking at your diet I would say you definitely need to up your protein but thats been covered. Try to get some first meal. Instead of the option where you only eat a bowl of cereal. I would be sure to get some eggwhites or something.

 

[PGHRam]

Got me worried for a second there talking about sticking things up my ass....