Page 1 of Anyone able to advise on excercising?

Well..taxi-ing takes it`s toll ;)
Yep..ol` Jimbo`s gettin` a bit round in the middle now I aint walking miles upon miles on the shop floor anymore.
Basically, I have some equipment.
I have an excercise bike, I have one of those ab-cruncher roller things and I have an elliptical stepper (think that`s what they`re called...the stepper that goes side to side too instead of just up n down)

Anyway, knowing the right diets and how to excercise etc. has never been one of my strong points so can anyone advise on a good rota/regime to follow?
I have never been big or plump until the last couple of years. Could be the dreaded spread, could be giving up smoking but I think it`s down to sitting on me arse all day driving :D

Hopefully looking to get some sort of plan going that doesn`t involve too much time per day and can be expanded. Also going to start noting weight differences and how much excercise physically done.
(have to be careful, have a back problem that if I strain it too much it`s out for weeks, hence the ab-roller thing to help with crunches.)

So to start with today was 60 crunches (or rolls) and ten minutes on the bike, took about 15 minutes total.

Help and advice greatfully received :)

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

dont put butter/marge on toast - just the jam.
If not toast then cereals for breakfast - HOT skimmed milk on cereal tastes no different to normal milk.
If you work in an office like me - dont phone/email people - walk round and see them.
If you live close (<5m) then try cycling to work - you are using time that you would be sat in a car to do some excercise.

Good luck

I was given some advise by a mate who IMO knows what hes on about.

Quote:
Right, firstly, and most importantly, is DIET. Food is energy. Fat is stored energy. If you eat more food than you need, it`ll be stored as fat. Simple.

We measure food energy in Calories. A balanced diet requires Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats. Protein builds and keeps muscle, carbs are your basic energy, and fats are a necessity for joints, your brain, etc. The problem is most people`s diets are high in carbs and fats, but not protein.

As a general rule, you should aim for 1 gram per day of carbs and protein per pound of bodyweight. So if you weigh 180lbs, that`s 180g carbs and 180g protein. If you eat healthy foods, you don`t have to count the fat content as it should be suitable down. However, if you eat real healthy fatty acids will be too low and you`ll have to supplement with a couple of pieces of fish a week or my favourite, a small handful of nuts before bed (ahem!). Not Salted Peanuts, proper nuts!

Right, so at 180lb a day, your diet will be roughly:

180g Protein
180g Carbs
40-50g Fats

That`s around 1800-1900 calories a day:

1g Protein = 4 cals
1g Carbs = 4 cals
1g Fat = 9 cals

Now to be real healthy, you want to eat 5 or 6 meals a day. Why? It raises your metabolism. Most diets don`t work as people starve themselves. When you go hungry, your body goes in to Starvation Mode and that`s real bad. You actually burn off MUSCLE before fat, as you don`t need muscle to survive. It`s from the old Neanderthal days when everyone was as hairy as chimps armpit.

So eat more often, your metabolic rate rises, and you actually burn off fat by doing no exercise!! It`s great. I find when I`m really in synch, I sweat when I eat. I literally become a furnace, my body is a "machine" burning off fat as I eat.

6 meals a day is hard, I know. Unless you`re real strict, there is a pretty simple way to do it. In my case, as I`m trying to gain muscle, I need plenty of carbs to maintain a positive glycogen level. If I don`t have enough carbs at all time, my body will use the protein I eat as energy. This is bad, I want all my protein to go towards muscle maintenance and growth, so I have to eat surplus carbs. The result is some of the carbs inevitably get stored as fat and you go a bit podgy, however you do see a big increase in strength - hopefully you can lose the fat later!

If you`re just after a sensible diet to get healthy and lose a bit of lard, you should front-load the carbs. That is, more carbs in the morning, less in the evening. If you don`t burn carbs off, they get stored as fat, so avoid carbs a couple of before you go to bed. If you sleep at 10pm, no carbs later than 7pm.

It`s difficult to get the 6 meals balanced through the day. This is what I`d suggest for a simple way to stick pretty close to it.

Divide the daily carbs total by 4. You`ll have 1/2 your carbs at breakfast, and the other half split between lunch and dinner.

Divide protein by 6, and spread that through the day.

So with a 180lb man, you`ll have something like this:

Breakfast
Carbs 90g
Protein 30g

Snack (mid morning)
Carbs 0g
Protein 30g

Lunch
Carbs 45g
Protein 30g

Snack (mid afternoon)
Carbs 0g
Protein 30g

Evening Meal
Carbs 45g
Protein 30g

Before Bed
Carbs 0g
Protein 30g


That would be ideal.

To put that in to context, 30g of protein is about 1 chicken breast. So 6 of them a day, or get some protein shakes - nice, and cheaper. However, mix with water to avoid the carbs and fat in milk. Only have with milk if you`re trying to gain muscle.

You can work out your own diet around that. Avoid sugars and such foods. Regardless of what you hear, you don`t want lots of potatoes, pasta and bread. 2 slices of good quality Granary bread (the best) contains 30g of carbs, so a sandwich with a HUGE slab of chicken in it and lots and lots of salad could be your evening meal. For breakfast, how about 5 pieces of wheetabix and a pint of semi skimmed milk? Pretty healthy, good fibre, and that gets your carb intake to around 90g. Worrying, that big meal only contains 24g of protein.

Don`t forget to scale up or down according to your own weight, and remember as your weight drops, your food intake has to drop. If you lose more than 1kg a week, you`re losing muscle, so increase total calories by 100 each day.

Weight loss is scientific. You DO need to count calories, measure your foods, and weigh yourself. I bet if you worked out your current diet, you`d be under 100g of protein a day, and probably 250 to 300g of carbs, maybe a load of fat as well. Protein is the most important thing you can eat. Think of it like this - in our body, protein is what makes and maintains the LIVING cells. The fat on a body is just dead.

It may not be ideal for you but at least there is some good advise in there.

Oh and good luck.


The Jackal

Obviously the best thing is not to eat any rubbish too, crisps and fizzy drinks are a big no no. Fill yourself up at meal times and you won`t want to snack.

Ok onto exercise - I`d do it every other day. Alternate between doing fast exercise on the machines on an easy level and then more normal paced on a higher level. I`d say do 10 minutes on each each time.

Ab rollers are ok, but it`s a common misconception that they`re going to make you lose your stomach - they`re not. Situps crunches etc will strengthen the muscles but they won`t burn much fat which is what you need to get rid of first.

I`d also recommend doing other cardio as well as the bike/stepper. Running and skipping are great. Also if you`ve got a decent sized step outside your house (or just buy a plastic one) then going up and down it really quickly is a real fat burner, same for jumping up and down it, you`ll be knackered after a few mins.

And if your back can handle it, there`s always weights, pressups, squats etc or an exercise called burpees - basically a pressup, squat thrust and jump one after the other - they`re the most tiring exercise you`ll do in your life.

See here Burpee clip

UQ Web Design

its simple really - anything is better than doing nothing, try just doing thirty minutes a day... walking, cycling or using the equpimnet you already have, the ab trainer thing is good if you dont like sit ups!

I am no health freak.. but i like the gym for 30-minutes to an hour every morning, as it makes me more alert!



`i am going to live forever or die trying`

I had a similar problem at the beginning of the year. I`m 6`3`` and I weighed in at 18st2lb at the beginning of the year.
Figured it was time for a diet & exercise!

To begin with I just went on a healthy eating diet...the Mrs bought the poo woman`s book (Gillian McKeith) and we took a few recipes from that. Plenty of fish with vegetables etc. Home-made muesli for breakfast and so on.
A couple of months later I started going to the gym and doing mainly aerobic excersise (cycling, cross-trainer, running machine). A few weeks after that I was mixing it up with weight training as well, since apparently you burn more fat if you do that.
Anyway, I`ve managed to get down to 15st0lb (was under 15 stone last week but it kind of got spoilt with birthday celebratory drinking/eating!!! :D)

I would start with looking at your diet (the posts above have some great info) - and doing some simple exercise (walking etc.). When you start to feel the effects of that, then start with some more strenuous exercise. Don`t do too much too soon as you can often end up hurting yourself.

Also - I`d suggest giving up drinking anything except water...and try to drink 1.5L at least per day (its amazing the cleansing effect water has). The odd glass of wine is fine, but no beer/spirits etc.

Good luck and just remember to keep the will power going! Since I know how tough it can be!

Miles

Muchos grassy-arses for the replies people.
Diet is an awkward one for me...there are so many "healthy" foods I just can`t palate.
I like very few veg (but those I do I love. Most veg tastes like grass to me though and makes me ill) and although I can drink water I tend to drink diet pepsi and have done for about 20 years.
On that note though, I have gone from about 8 litres a day down to about 1.5 to 2. Yeah, I know it isn`t "good for you" but according to my doctor it isn`t necessarily bad either as I drink the diet stuff and it isn`t a new thing for me therefore no worries on the Diabetes front.

Continuing...Fish...pretty picky on fish and only like the cheapo stuff (the frozen breadcrumbed crap :D) but don`t like it often. Chicken is a different kettle of erm....fish though :D I could eat that til it comes out me ears (and usually do!)
Can`t do the weight training due to the back issues which is a shame (used to carry 36" CRT Sony tellys about on me own at work so never had to worry before lol) but all the other comments duly noted.

Jackal...hope you aint just turned me into one of those calorie-counting "how much protein/fat/calories does this (insert food name) have before I buy it" saddos you see in the aisles of Asda etc ;)

All I want to do is really drop the spreading middle to something a bit more trim and more like I have been for years....don`t like this ledge that seems to be appearing lol.

Cheers again peeps. Anymore advice keep `em coming <jumps on the bike for 15 minutes>

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

Rather than get into a big regime and exercise schedule immediately, just work on stopping eating crap initially - this can take a few weeks to a month to get settled into - anytime you reach for a bag of crisps, anytime you grab that twix when you`re payin for your petrol, just ignore the impulse

stop eating any crap first

If you start into an exercise regime straight away you`ll get tired of it real quick

Oh, and it may not go down well but cut down on any beers too

and stop eating any crap

It doesn`t sound like fun, but as someone said above, food is energy, fat is stored energy - work on the food first

Yep, and stop eating crap ;)

Another thing I learned is its best to exercise first thing in the morning before breakfast. Just 20 mins on the bike every other day to start with, then every day if you like. As you have not eaten the only reserves the body has is fat so it gets burned off quicker. Make sure you have a pint of water at hand and then you can have breakfast.

To start with just a diet change will be good. Why dont you keep us up to date. Post your target weight and give us weekly updates. That way it will motivate you to keep it up. I haven`t been to the gym for 6 months now and the old belts are getting tighter. :(


The Jackal

Quote:
8 litres a day down to about 1.5 to 2

Blimey Jimbo - 1 can is bad enough...but that`s just mental.
Even though its the "diet" stuff, its really not great for you. I really didn`t like drinking water before (always had to put squash with it) - but I`ve got used to it and actually quite enjoy a nice cold glass of it now.

As for the fish...I really didn`t enjoy it before this year either...but I`m loving it now.
Things like salmon steaks done with orange juice and tamari/soy sauce are a good thing to start with. Really flavoursome and very healthy.
Cooking your fish with fresh ginger really helps to reduce the `fishiness` that a lot of people don`t like (incl myself).

And by the way - stop eating crap ;)

If you need a source of will power I`m sure everyone here can help out!