STARTER HELP!!

[garethlello1979]

Hi guys names Gareth and I have never really struggle but since coming out of a 2 year relationship I have done the usual and become content but now after the break up I want to get shape back.


stats are height 5ft9, weight 180lb (12st12lb) waist 93.5cm, stomach 103cm age 34


I am very disappointed as almost 2 years a go to the day stats were weight 147lb (10st 7lb) waist 86cm, stomach 89cm


There is a lot of work to do I know but I am determined to lose the weight and have joined the gym accordingly.


I am after advice as I want to get slim again no six pack or anything like that but have a decent shape and tone.

Is it better though to build muscle then cut down or lose the weight first. And also what is the best method?

Some people say HIT followed by short intense weights sessions doing low reps at high weight will cause significant weight loss without losing any exisiting muscle, the others say lots of cardio mainly and the other advice of low weights high reps.

What would be the best way? And with that method is it better to eat a normal amount of calories or go for a low calorie diet on toip of the routine for better results?

[Boss Man]

Hi Gareth good to speak with you.

Low weight high rep is rubbish so don't even go there, you won't build much muscle if all you're doing is using measly weight levels many, many times, just getting a half decent pump and possibly some serious lactic acid.

Go for high weight low rep, so use for example an 8-10 rep methodology on sets, but initially whatever you do, if you're new it it go light with the 8-10 rep system, not 15-20 reps and then over the course of 4-6 weeks, increase a little as your body adjusts until you could be doing 90-95% of failure.

Cardio is fine but you only really need 2-3 sessions a week for 20-30 minuets, as mucle building cna helop ot burn calories and 1lb of extra muscle burns an extra 45-50 calories, so you won't necessarily need to bulk or cut, because you could combine a bit of both anyway, enve if you gained let's say 5lbs of muscle and lost 20 lbs of fat and excess water combined, you'd still be a bit stronger but weigh around 165lbs in 6 months or less.

However the muscle gain could be a bit more than that, as people are often different and get different results, based on the training, frequency of it, supplements, diet, sleep, water intake, hormone production and regulation I:E some men producing a bit more testosterone than others and maybe one or two other things as well.

Incidentally, what are your current meal times and what foods do you eat at those times?

[garethlello1979]

Well for the 2 weeks up to xmas I practised with a rigid diet and no gym but I put weight on at the rate of about a 1lb per week which I don't get!!

Breakfast 7am - Oats

Break 10am - Banana

Lunch 1pm - Chicken with cous cous sweetcorn beetroot

Break 3.30pm - Small amount of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds mix

Tea 8pm - Either baked potatoe with cheese and beans or wholegrain rice, mince, mushroom, chilli and garlic.

Are there any supplements that could help ive heard ketones and CLA are good

[Boss Man]

Well for the 2 weeks up to xmas I practised with a rigid diet and no gym but I put weight on at the rate of about a 1lb per week which I don't get!!

(Because it's about calories in versus calories burned, not necessarily just about the quality of the food the calories come from. If, for example, a sedentary man needs about 2,000 calories a day, but consumes 2,500 calories from things like fruit, vegetables, legumes, lean meats etc, with little to no junk, would't he not gain weight, when the body potentially had no reason to burn or need 400-500 of those calories? Even if the guy was moderating carbs to say 30% of intake, so not a lot of carb to fat conversion if any, he could still gain some potential weight if the 400-500 calories were not needed for energy or fuel and they converted to fat, so this might have happened to you.

Alternatively, as 1lb of muscle burns an extra 45-50 calories a day, if you altered your diet in a way where you ate a bit below what was best for calories, or you were not getting adequate protein, which with the first two meals in your plan you're not; losing a bit of muscle could promote fat gain.

Hopefully this provides some answers for you.)

Breakfast 7am - Oats

(I'd add more protein in here like eggs, ham, turkey, beef, chicken.)

Break 10am - Banana

Same here, as you're only eating about 120 calories and that's if the banana is a large one, so this might account for your fat gain, as both meals are low protein and you're probably getting roughly 300-450 calories from the 2 meals, based on the portion size of the oatmeal and size of banana, so that could promote some muscle loss and in turn fat gain, whereas with more protein you could be adding another 150-250 calories in over the two meals, which would be more muscle sparing and help avoid a possible "starvation mode" scenario.)

Lunch 1pm - Chicken with cous cous sweetcorn beetroot

(Good)

Break 3.30pm - Small amount of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds mix

(I'd add some of the protein sources in here as mentioned earlier, but you could consider options as well like low fat cheese and peanuts, as a small amount of added carbs with your protein won't be too bad, as you're not getting a load of carbs from the seeds anyway, the higher proportion of the calories is likely to be from fat.)

Tea 8pm - Either baked potatoe with cheese and beans or wholegrain rice, mince, mushroom, chilli and garlic.

(Good)

Are there any supplements that could help ive heard ketones and CLA are good

(I've heard reasonable things about raspberry ketones, but although I don't know a slew of information about it, it does seem like a bit of a faddy thing and from memory Conjugated Linoleic Acid seems to polarise people. Some say it's a below average supplement, some say good. I'd suggest keeping the CLA and forgetting the ketones, to save yourself a bit of moola.

Any other supplements that might be decent are things like vit C and Glutamine for benefits like immune system and sleep improvement, with the latter benefit mostly attributed to glutamine moreso than vit C.

I feel you wouldn't need anything else much unless you wanted to explore possibilities like fish oil or krill oil, or echinacea which has good immune system benefits backed with science.)

[garethlello1979]

That's brilliant thanks following the diet I was only having about 1600 calories per day so that is why the weight gain was a real shock to me. As weight is currently 180 and I'm trying to drop to about 154lb is it better to continue with the low calories and go to the gym or increase the calories and look to build a bit of muscle. I did notice a couple of years ago when I was 147lb I was eating around 1700 calories and following a gym routine and weight never changed but I lost cm off waist and stomach measurements.

Inch loss is target so for the time being would the low calorie and intense gym session be ok for a 3-6 month period before switching up the calories and actually trying to build muscle well based on the fact I'm aiming to have dropped several inches in the next 6 months. I'll put a pic up if I can this evening of how body is now and see if I can find a pic of what I want to get to as well

[Alinshop]

I think on the days your working out (lifting) you could eat a few more clean calories, if you are actually hungrier than normal.

[garethlello1979]

How can I insert an image from hard drive on here to show starting position?

[Boss Man]

Various ways.

You can link to photos via a photobucket, flickr or picasa web album, or another similar web album site.

Alternatively, you can upload it via the upload function on your fittracker profile.

[garethlello1979]

Right ive got profile pic up which is me now to back up the stats 183lb, stomach 103.5cm and waist 95.5cm

I have press up bars was wondering if it was ok to have a blast on them every morning?

Also is manuka honey any good as I was thinking of putting a couple of spoons in morning oats

[Boss Man]

Manuka honey should be okay; I don't see a probielm with that.

As for the push-up bars, you could incorporate them into a workout, but I wouldn't necessarily use them everyday, as muscles do need rest and even if you were not training them each day to the point where you could encourage accumulated fatigue over time, you might be promoting very limited improvement, versus a greater quantity of push-ups during the week; I:E 3 sets, 2 days a week, versus 1 set, 6 days a week.

[garethlello1979]

Cheers for the help.

Just going back to the diet there were a couple of tweeks you suggested to up calories and prevent starvation mode.

Breakfast oats whats the easiest thing that I could add in as ideally I want something that I can actually mix in with the oats.

Breaktime banana you mention something additional to go in there whats the best thing to add in.

Afternoon snack pumpkin and sunflower seeds, were the peanuts the additional item for protein and carbs or would I still need some low fat cheese as well as I don't fancy cheese spread to go with seeds lol

[Boss Man]

The peanuts would work fine.

As for the banana, I was thinking more along of lines of some type of meat. You can get things like ham, turkey, beef and chicken in a packet, which you could have with a banana.

As for oats, you can do quite a few things with it, like mix in yoghurt, nuts or honey as examples, but you could also add things in like ground nutmeg and cinnamon.

[garethlello1979]

ham turkey beef and chicken in a packet where do u shop for that I haven't seen anything like that in the supermarket

[garethlello1979]

Oh or did u mean the packs of proper chicken u get to out in stuff save cooking frozen chicked yourself

[Boss Man]

You can usually get such meats in thin blister packs that come pre-cooked and sliced. You'll normally find them on a shelf in a meat isle, not in a freezer cabinet or a meat counter.

Usually this sort of thing, as an example.



You may find however that such things are not available if you're going to things like Tesco Express or Metro, a Sainsburys Local, or small supermarkets tagged into petrol stations, or places like Spar, Happy Shopper, Stop and Shop, Mace etc, so then you would have to go to a larger supermarket for them.