Bahtatboy

Preparation Week: Day 1
Right, decided that enough is enough. I feel grossly fat: I have more shirts in my wardrobe that I can't fit into than ones I can. In 13 weeks I'll be going to Shanghai. It will be disgustingly hot and sticky, and I'll be meeting my colleagues from around the world. I really, really don't want to be my current shape when I go there (partly coz of the weather, but mainly coz I don't look presentable), and I've got numerous non-iron shirts, still in their wrappers, which will be perfect for there. I also have several pairs of decent trousers which are too small to the extent that I can't even do them up.

I WILL BE ABLE TO WEAR THEM ALL IN 13 WEEKS.

How? Simple.
Eating right: Eat frequently, small portions, low carb, good fats, plenty of water, booze just once a week (less if I can). Wholesome food, nothing processed.
Training right: Hard, strength-based exercises that tax the whole system and continue fat buring for the whole day, plus some shorth, sharp cardio. And keep moving during the day.
Rest: Rest is essential to good health and metabolism. 7-8 hours sleep per day. And reflect, to keep the stress in check.

It can't be simpler than that!

Today is the first day of my preparation week. Can't do too much because I've got a hectic schedule tonight. Tomorrow I may struggle, too, to do any exercise, but I'll try to get up in time (which needs to be 5:45), if not I'll do in the evening.

What I Did Well Today
 Clean food, although a bit carby
 Plenty of water
 No booze

What I Should Do Better Tomorrow
 Get in the gym—first weights session for a couple of weeks, so will need to take it easy
 Less carbs, more protein
 Split food into 6 or 7 meals
 Get to bed earlier

Any encouragement welcome

(And if the consensus is that this is self-indulgent, I'll ask the Mods to remove the thread.)

Blue Cat

good luck!! you can do it

Millhouse

cut out all booze mate and it'll come together.

soukie

Well done BB - you can do it. Cut out beer, crisps, peanuts. Go vegetarian for a week, plenty of vegetable soups (easy to make if you have a blender) and that will give you a very good start.

Millhouse

eat granola for lunch. amazing stuff

co durham boy

We use this in our Gym for the newbies who join and want to lose weight . It works and is well used .


Summary: less carbs (especially refined ones), more lean protein, more non-starchy veg and healthy fats combined with some resistance based work. Diet for fat loss. Exercise to keep muscle.

This is in contrast with the old advice of low-fat, high carb combined with cardio which supposedly results in skinny-fat people and yo-yo dieting.

This is not a no-carb or very low-carb diet like Atkins etc. Those are hard to follow for any length of time, may well be unhealthy and appear to result in muscle loss. You should be able to stick to this diet in a loosened form forever.

Studies show that people tend to eat a lot (i.e. way more than they need) of refined carbs and it’s linked with obesity, diabetes and subsequent heart disease. Carbs are easily turned to fat by the body, proteins take more effort. A higher protein:carb ratio in the diet leads to a better body composition in terms of muscle:fat, when combined with resistance exercise. Other advantages of protein over carbs are that they require more energy to metabolise and tend to be more filling for longer. Vegetables are required as they are healthy, fibrous and filling.

To lose fat you have to go into calorie deficit. When in this state you also tend to lose muscle unless you take steps to prevent it. Muscle burns more calories than fat so the less muscular you are the easier it is to regain weight after the diet. Hence people who cut their cals, eat a lot of carbs and don’t do resistance work lose fat and muscle and then put the fat back on as they are burning less calories than they were before they started.

But if you eat plenty of protein throughout the day (so that blood protein levels are high enough for the body to get it’s protein from there, rather than your muscles) and do resistance exercise (which stimulate the growth of muscle), you can not only prevent muscle loss but actually gain some even whilst dieting. So you get leaner, stronger, more muscular whilst feeling fuller and get all the benefits of the various nutrients in veg and fruit.

Diet Rules:

1. Eat lean protein with every meal.
2. Eat non-starchy veg at lunch and dinner (and breakfast if you can work that into it, I can’t)
3. Don’t eat more carb-foods in one meal than the equivalent of 1 slice of bread, a couple of tablespoons of cooked rice, a small potato (size of a snooker ball) and even then for only 2 of the 3 main meals
4. Ideally reserve most carbs for breakfast or for post-workout.
5. When eating carbs, eat unrefined carbs – brown rice, wholewheat products and the like.
6. Avoid fruit-juices, sugary drinks and snacks.
7. Only eat a moderate amount of fruit – a couple of pieces day or less - focus on veg rather than fruit.
8. Don’t get properly hungry – eat if you need to, just stick to the formula
9. Start meals by eating veg (a salad starter is perfect, or just start on the veg bits first), if you start getting full before you’ve finished the meal don’t feel the need to finish it. Save some for later or chuck it. A study showed that people who started meals with a salad tended to lose weight with no other diet intervention simply because it lengthens the meal allowing the hunger urge to catch-up with you wolfing the food down. The other option is to eat more slowly.
10. Keep the booze to the weekend and not too much of it. Spirit + diet mixer is the best. Wine is 2nd best. It’s hard to lose weight if you get %&*$# up every week unfortunately – unless combined with speed of course.
11. Cut out drinks with sugar in them if possible. Just one if you can’t.

Example diet meals:

Breakfast examples:
- A small protein shake plus a small bowl of low GI cereal (all-bran, something oat-based, weetabix, shredded wheat. Not coco-pops)
- 2 poached eggs on toast
- Yoghurt or two (low sugar) and an apple

Breakfast can be the hardest meal to get protein into since we are so schooled into eating cereals by the manufacturers and tend to be in a rush, hence the protein shake for me. You’d lose just as well skipping the shake but it’s perfect if you are doing exercise and need the protein. However it's not vital.

Lunch example:
- A salad (this can contain beans, pulses, peas, lentils, sweetcorn etc to make it more interesting and carby), wow-fat dressing plus a decent portion of baked chicken, tuna, lean ham, cottage cheese

Dinner examples:
- Grilled salmon with veg and a few new potatoes if this fits with rule 3
- Chicken curry with small portion of rice (rule 3) and broccoli and carrots
- Chilli con carne made with 2-4 times the amount of beans served in a tortilla wrap with salad

It is fine to have a snack or snack-meal between meals as long as they are appropriate.

Snacks – ideally containing protein but this can be impractical at work. A ryvita with cottage cheese is good. But piece of fruit or a small handful of nuts is fine. If you need something more substantial then just add a small meal following the rules. Better to eat healthy than get hungry and lose the plot later on.

Cheats – the odd sweet, square of chocolate or small glass of wine won’t kill you but the more you cheat the worse the results.

Portions of protein are like a can of tuna (not in oil), a chicken breast, ½ tub of cottage cheese, 3-4oz of lean ham. Do a big cook once a week and freeze portions for lunch if it suits.

If you feel you need bigger portions of lean protein because your portion of rice or potatoes is small then go for it.

Fish is lean protein. Battered cod is not. Chicken is lean protein. KFC is not. You get the idea.

If your diet doesn’t contain much in the way of healthy fats (fish, olive oil, nuts) then take some fish oil caps.

Exercise:

Do resistance work three times a week ideally. Twice will do at a push.

By that I mean a full-body workout of weights or bodyweight exercise working all the main muscle groups. Do reps in the 6-12 range ideally. If you can do more than 12 reps then add weight (even if it’s to press-ups). You can go up to 20 reps for legs. Do 2-3 sets per exercise. Note the reps and weights used. Improve on it each week, ideally by adding more weight but adding reps is fine as long as they don’t go over the rep range outlined. If doing weights then do compound moves rather than isolation moves (e.g. do leg press rather than leg extension machine). Train with a weight that makes the last rep of the last set very hard to complete – i.e. you simply cannot complete it or couldn’t do another. Rest 1-2 mins between sets.

The key to this is to train for strength and size, not endurance – hence the rep ranges used. You must try to build your strength (and hence muscle size) over the period. This is what stops you losing your muscle. You are not exercising to burn calories, although you will. Diet for fat-loss, exercise for muscle retention.

Try to make sure you have protein and carbs in your body directly after exercise. Ideally time your exercise so it’s before a meal and put some carbs into that meal. If this isn’t possible then add a small whey protein shake to the diet to drink after your workout (20g-30g in skimmed milk or water. If you can exercise directly after a meal this will do but you might be sick!

Example exercise programs:

Weights:

Dead-lifts
Squats or leg-press
Pull-ups or lat pull-downs
Bench press or dumbbell press
Seated row
Shoulder press
Abs work

Bodyweight:

One-legged bodyweight squats (hold a weight if you need to)
Glute-ham raises or glute bridges
Press-ups
Pull-ups
Handstand press-ups
Abs work

Some Argos dumbbells can be used to supplement home bodyweight work or you can combine weight and bodyweight

If you want to do some “cardio” work (running etc) then try to do it on other days as this can hinder muscle gain.

If you want to increase fat burning then do the exercises in a circuit with 60 seconds or less of rest between sets. You'll find it gives you a severe cardio workout.

Other stuff:

If eating out go for salads and tell them you want to dress if yourself. Failing that just go for a low/medium fat, high protein option ask them to hold the carbs and replace them with other veg.

If there are no sensible choices then ask for a smaller portion of whatever they serve with extra veg.

A bottle of beer or small glass of wine sort of counts as a carb portion. So if you know you will be drinking then cut down the carbs that day. It also means you get %&*$# more quickly which is good or bad depending on your point of view.

If the diet doesn’t work from the off then you’re eating too much.

If the diet stalls after a couple of months then this is fairly normal. Your metabolic rate will drop when dieting. However it’s not permanent and will go up again. So up your carbs a bit to the point where you don’t lose or gain weight (maybe gain a very small amount). After 2 or 3 weeks go for it again.

If your weight-loss allows it, have a cheat day e.g. Sundays- eat your (slightly smaller roast dinner), have a bit of ice-cream, more wine etc. Don’t go mad, keep things small etc but a bit of a refuel can keep things on track metabolically and mentally.

Keep the fibre levels up.

Drink enough water but don't get obsessive about necking multiple litres a day.

Robajob

Good on yer mate, I followed a plan not entirely dissimilar to Co Durham Boys since Christmas, and it works, I've managed to lose a stone and a half.

and now the Yorkshire version of encouragement

Stop eating and drinking shite and get down the gym yer fat b******d

Robajob

Yeah, it's so amazingly awful I'd rather starve......

Jim Smith

So are you going to put up a pie chart of your progress?!!!!!

OriginalSunshine

Dorset cereal & skinny milk for breakfast on a w*rkday, poached eggs & salmon on a wholemeal bagel + rucola at the weekend (easy to make, heaven to eat).

Salad or a couple of rolls with turkey ham & mustard for lunch

Supper - generally fish, veg + small amount of rice for supper.

When cooking I always use "healthy heart" (canola) oil.

And because of the family I swim at lunchtimes, so that I can be with the kids after work.

But the biggest difference was booze - I cut down from a couple of (large) glasses of wine each evening to 3 small ones on a Thursday.

UKCityGent

Try fasting as well (16hours a day - not that hard to do) - works great for me
but sometimes i push it to 24 hours (only 2 or 3 times a week)

Millhouse

This strikes me as a very bad idea. I remember from school that your body will enter starvation model and when you do actually eat it will store it.

commander

Kinda true.

A great value exercise is to do a 30min run first thing in the morning. BEFORE breakfast. Do not take on any food or drink apart from water. Run at a low Heart rate. This way you are teaching your body to be more efficient at burning fat calories (as you are already carb deficient) What is important that you have a proper breakfast after or it will hit you later..
I do this 3-4 mornings a week as a 'recovery' run.

For cardio work, don't smash a 30 min fast run, think about doing a slow pace hour but every 10mins, pick up the pace for 1-2 minutes(go as fast as you can)

The biggest mistake people make when they work out is NOT eating enough. You have to refuel after a workout or you will feel ill later.

Good luck.

Desert Dubliner

I lost a pound only from reading all this.

The Dean

So what happened to your New Year plan from last year?