Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PetrolHead
Nothing has happened on this thread for a few months so I thought I would drop in with a update as to how I am doing.
I now weigh in at 74.5 KG (11st 7lbs) :woowoo: which is just within the healthy range for my height.
For the past few months I have been calorie counting, for example this month my daily average consumption so far is 1827 calories per day and my daily deficit is 769 calories.
My stomach is not flat yet so no sign of any muscle. Do I need to slow down on the cardio now and focus purely on toning and weights?
Thanks to everyone who has contributed over the months by the way :)
Congratulations on reaching your target Petrol. Keep it up.
6 packs are almost entirely down to having low body fat %. Generally sub 10-12% for most people. Little lower for some. you can do a 1000's of crunches/inverted sit-ups/whatever a day for years and not have a six pack. I know at one point I was and had huge abdominals and no 6 pack due to having 20% body fat, the 6 pack wasn't my goal, more strength and general fitness, but I can't stress enough that your bodyfat is the deciding factor there, not situps etc. If you keep up your current routine you'll get there for sure.
Personally now you've gotten to your main goal. I'd look more into tweaking your routine for the long term. Looking more toward enjoyment and maintenance of the routine, while maintaining the same level of benefit. It's very easy to fall back out of your good habits once you've achieved your goal and undo all the good work and while goals are of course good things, you will run out of them sooner or later. We've all done it, miss one day, then another then before you know it back to square one. nothing will help your long term maintenance more than enjoyment in my experience. Try some new sports would be the best advice on that front I think. A workout buddy can be good too, a couple of hours workout flies by while you're nattering and there's the obvious safety improvements too.
Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
I have lost over 3 stone this year, most important thing for me to get guaranteed results was the calorie counting. Bit of a pain to start with but once you have sussed your meals via 'my fittness pal' or similar, just make sure you are in deficient and it will fall off.
Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PetrolHead
I have slowly been losing weight since last November, originally started on 98 Kilos I am now down to 85 Kilos, however it feels like it is taking forever.
I need to lose about another 10 Kilos to be within a healthy weight range for my height (175cm) but I can feel myself starting to come disillusioned with the whole process, being slim feels like miles off.
I go to the gym at least 4 times a week, 45 minutes of cardio per session, usually burning about 400 calories a time.
My weekday diet consists of
8am Large bowl of Cornflakes
10am Apple
11am Small fruit pot in juice (120g)
1pm Home made sandwiches (Using 50/50 bread and low fat marg)
3pm Low fat yogurt
7pm Evening meal usually chicken and rice or similar.
At the weekends I usually will eat out once or twice but I can't see how that would slow my weight loss down to a halt.
Where am I going wrong? Any suggestions/feedback/criticisms are welcome.
Well marg isn't food technically. I would avoid it like the plague. Butter or a high quality olive oil based spread would be better.
I would go with a bowl of oats rather than cornflakes.
Have you done diet breaks? or are you just continually dieting? If not your body will just adapt and do all sorts of things like lower your metabolism. People who diet for a long time end up with damaged metabolisms.
I would also look at doing a basic weights work out to preserve muscle while you lose weight. For example, it's no good if you lose 5kg and 4kg of that was muscle.
Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
It's hard to know what to believe these days as we hear so much conflicting advice from the media. But the more I read about it, the more I'm also persuaded to avoid margarine - it's totally artifical, and contains more of the worst kinds of fats (trans fats) than any butter.
Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dannyboy75
It's hard to know what to believe these days as we hear so much conflicting advice from the media. But the more I read about it, the more I'm also persuaded to avoid margarine - it's totally artifical, and contains more of the worst kinds of fats (trans fats) than any butter.
I agree with that, I recently moved to pitta breads instead of normal bread to avoid the margarine, not used any for about 6 months now.
Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
I kill two birds with one stone - I don't have margarine or butter. I'm a plain person... :P
Drink water, excercise regularly and don't eat crap. Three simple steps to help lose weight.
If you want to gain muscle mass, eat a lot of protein and do strenuous weights work outs.
People make it out as if everything is very complicated. All it takes is some determination and voila, results will show.
I've been drinking approximately 5 or 6 liter's of water a day and I've lost weight. I play football two or three times a week too. I don't have a bad diet but I do eat some rubbish... But exercise and drinking water on their own can help.
Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
best ways I've found- low carb/high fat or low fat/high carb. Got good results from both :)
Re: Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?
From what I've read (mainly in men's health but also from other online sources) if you're looking to lose weight then high intensity exercises (80% ish of your max heart rate if I remember correctly) is one of the best ways to burn calories. Even better than that is High Intensity Interval Training, where you do some low intensity exercise (e.g. jogging) followed by brief periods of high intensity (e.g. sprinting). Doing this in intervals keeps your body guessing and helps to burn quickly. Weightlifting is also an incredibly good calorie burner as it works similar to HIIT in that you're doing short bursts of exercise (if you're really pushing yourself).
Foodwise, avoid processed sugars like the plague and watch the carb intake (which is remarkably hard). Saying this, there isn't really any need to remove carbs entirely - just ensure that calories you're consuming are burnt in the exercise.
Example meal plan I have is...
Breakfast - 2 boiled eggs
Snack - blueberries/strawberries/other fruit
Lunch - salad with ham/chicken/bacon (occasionally)
Also omellete with chicken and green peppers is excellent
Snack - fruit bar
Pre/post workout shake - creatine + whey with water (not milk)
Dinner - variable. Pasta twice a week, pork, chicken, beef, fish with lots of veg and some carbs e.g. potatos.
In terms of the water, I think it was 2 litres of water minimum a day (but more is fine). I tend to have tea during the day (tiny bit of milk, no sugar) and then drink Robinson's blackcurrant squash (no added sugar) in the evenings. Avoid lagers/ciders cause they have mega calories (think it was something horrendous like 300 calories in a bottle of Bulmers!!) but spirits are fine (just watch the mixers). Vodka/Gin are good, although I tend to go for rum+coke (zero sugar). I'm still researching other alternatives to coke though because I'm aware it's a bit counter productive :p
Hope this helps (apologies for the lengthy message!)
Edit: also, I've been using the 12 week workout plan from Men's Health (here) which is really helping to bulk up. I'm quite slim so weight loss wasn't much of an issue and it's really helping to develop my stomach muscles :)