Fat Stripping...

OrangeProse

nikmondo wrote: »

Hi,

Over the past 6 months i've eaten/drank what the hell I liked and have done less and less exercise to the point where I barely do any.

It's now all caught up with me and i've put on weight mostly around the middle.

I've looked on the web for diet and exercise plans and all I get is pics of body builders recommending a certain book, tablets or machine etc with a cheesy quote which is apparently from him!

Now (sadly I know!) I was watching Peter Andre's program (Peter Andre the next chapter I think??) the other night and he had some fitness guru come to his house. This guy gave him a diet plan to help Peter strip fat as he wanted a more toned look. The fitness guru chap said that all Peter should eat was grilled steak and veg for virtually every meal (inc breakfast!!). He told Peter to cut out carbs (Pasta, Potatoe's and cereals etc) and even fruit! :huh:

Of course this guy also told Peter to do exercie which of course I need to start again. Now I don't want to look like hulk but have more of a footballers type physique. I slim virtually everywhere apart from my belly which is not massive and you woudn't even notice unless I took my top off. I'm 6 foot tall and i'm weighing in around 13 stones (maybe slightly over).

So basically what i'm basically asking for is there a website out there that is straight to the point on how to lose weight? Which gives meal tips and exercise routine tips without being coned etc? Also a website that gives you nutrition values on virtually every food/drink product available. I have seen this somewhere before.

Your help would be much appreciated.

Peter Andre has a very specific body type. He can also (probably) get back to looking very 'ripped' and muscular very quickly, as his body has had a base layer of extremely well-developed muscle for most, if not all, of his adult life (remember how shiny and toned he was the first time round, when he was barely out of his teens?). It's a bit like when people suddenly started asking for the 'Taylor Lautner workout plan' after the Twilight movie last year. His physique was great, but as a martial arts expert he had an advanced level of fitness anyway so he will have found it a lot easier to pile on muscle than other guys his age.

So I'd put celebrities out of your mind. They tend to skew the debate a bit as they usually have lots more time and money to throw at faddy exercise and diet plans; the kind of time and money that aren't realistic for most people.

First of all, as everyone else has suggested, you need to look hard at your diet. It's difficult to give definitive advice as everyone's body is different but my inclination is that your diet is a little carb heavy.

That said, don't stop reading here and cut carbs out altogether - your body needs them! In fact, the right kind of carbs give your muscles energy.

You're also probably taking on too much processed food. That includes, I'm afraid, things like white bread, rice and pasta. Also stuff like biscuits, cakes, sweets. And lager. Lager is evil. It contains loads of calories, not one of which is any use to your body whatsoever. You could do a lot worse than to cut out drinking completely for a bit, or at least switch to something like vodka and slimline tonic, which contains far fewer carbohydrates, and reduce your intake.

The best way to find out what you should be eating is to take some nutritional advice. If you google 'metabolic type testing' you should find a handful of sites which will take you through some basic questions about diet, mood, how you feel when you eat certain foods and so on. This exercise is quite useful in determining what metabolic type you are.

Having said that, the majority of people come out as 'mixed'. I did when I did this testing with my personal trainer, and the advice given was to balance your plate. My trainer is very much of the mindset that weighing food and counting calories is counterproductive, as not many people are likely to stick with it long term. Instead, his advice to me was when preparing food, make sure your plate is roughly 50:50 carbs to protein. And when I say carbs, I mean complex carbs like wholegrain rice and pasta, potatoes with their skins on, and any vegetables you can find. Green is great but you should always aim for variety so don't discount carrots, peppers, sweetcorn etc etc.

So essentially, prepare foods yourself and don't add any processed carbs and you should start to notice a difference.

nikmondo wrote: »

Wow so much to take in!

I do eat fruit at work. I usually have bowl full and I eat banana's, Clemetines, plums and grapes. I also have Veg 2-3 a week with my dinners which I know should be more but doesn't exactly go with Tuna pasta or scrambled egg does it! I used to exerice 3-4 times a week and I did actually lose almost 2 stone. I did diet but looking back on it my diet probably wasn't that great as it consisted with Porridge for breakie with some banana, chicken salad for lunch with some fruit and then a smaller meal which contained a lot of pasta. I usually did this in the week and ate what I liked at weekends.

Actually, that eating plan sounds pretty good. At least the breakfast and lunch parts, anyway, and I think it probably fed you better than what you're eating right now.

One other thing to remember is not to fall into the trap of thinking that cutting out fat is the way to achieve greatness. The idea that 'fat makes you fat' is nonsense put about by the diet industry in order to sell its own products. The only thing that makes you fat is taking on more calories than you burn, and those calories can come from anywhere - fat, carbs, protein... In actual fact, fat (in the correct proportions and in its natural state, by which I mean a little marbling in meat, for example, or using butter or full-fat milk) is needed by the body to help slow down the absorption of carbohydrates. That's not to say you can cover everything in butter and expect to lose weight (there's the cholesterol factor, if nothing else) but conversely, cutting it out of your diet completely could be counterproductive.

In terms of exercise, it depends on what you want to achieve but as Bronnie mentioned, the Men's Health site is pretty good, especially the forums. They can be a bit abrasive compared to the decent folks here, mind - but stick in an anonymous sounding username and take the blokey punches and you'll get some fantastic advice along with it. I'd focus on sorting the diet first, though.

Re the water retention thing: unless you're concerned about the puffiness of your ankles I wouldn't worry too much. If you had water retention you'd probably have other symptoms. Besides, drinking a couple of litres of water a day is a good thing, and can help you lose weight alongside a good diet and exercise, so don't stop drinking it!

Eric_Pisch

OrangeProse wrote: »

The best way to find out what you should be eating is to take some nutritional advice. If you google 'metabolic type testing' you should find a handful of sites which will take you through some basic questions about diet, mood, how you feel when you eat certain foods and so on. This exercise is quite useful in determining what metabolic type you are.

im afraid we have to call bullsh1t on metabolic testing

http://bodyquestpt.blogspot.com/2010/04/metabolic-typing-fact-or-fiction.html

nikmondo

Wow again and thanks for the 2 lengthy responses above. I have so much great advise to be getting on with and i'm sure I can beat the bulge now! I'll do a weigh in tonight and will come back once in a while to tell you guys how i'm getting on.

Again peeps many many thanks for your time.

Nik

welshdent

Try not to worry too much about weight. Look at your body fat composition and general size measurements. As you build up muscle you will get heavier. I gained half a stone in weight but dropped 2% body fat recently and trimmed down size.

nikmondo

Oh and lastly I work in an office 9-5 which is a good reason why my lunch's of late have been pretty poor. What sort of meals can i pre prepare at home which I can take in to work for lunch?

welshdent

tuna and low fat mayo with sweetcorn! Love the stuff. Chuck in some tomatoes too I use the non drip tuna too so less brine in it.

piratefairy

This is really useful for me too - I am trying to lose weight and tone up, but i think I need to do that by upping my food intake to enable me to burn more, as usually don't meet 1000 cals a day!

jenniewb

nikmondo wrote: »

Oh and lastly I work in an office 9-5 which is a good reason why my lunch's of late have been pretty poor. What sort of meals can i pre prepare at home which I can take in to work for lunch?

Multigrain bread roll (one of them) and a meat or fish (protein!) and salad filling, quick, easy to prepare and if you swap to a low fat spead your saving yourself quite a few calories. Drink water or a 50/50 glass of orange juice with plain water.

Make up some salad: cube some cucumber, pepper, slice some tomatos and put into a box to cool. Also cook up a weeks worth of pasta (3kg of dried stuff for the week is enough), cool and then stick it in the fridge.
Every day weigh out 75 to 100grams of the stuff (when already cooked), into a tupperware style box, add some tuna or prawns or scrambled egg or whatever form of protein and add 2 heaped spoons of the salad you made. This is a good filling lunch.
Same can be done with rice (just don't keep rice for more then a day or two as it grows bacteria v.quickly and always keep it in the fridge). Couscous, gnocci, even new potatoes.

Its best to prepare lunches before hand as its all to easy to select the high sugar options when your hungry and shoping for lunch. To help you regulate your appetite, try to keep the sugar at a minimum. To find the amout of sugar in a product, find the product ingredience list and look for Carbohydrate of which sugars- the higher the sugars, the more likely you are to feel very hungry 20 mins after eating when your not actually hungry- this is an easy way to gain weight.

nikmondo

Again guys many thanks for your lengthy and helpful responses.

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!