# Nutrition advice to get fit



## tmitch45

After a 3 year lay-off from competitive tennis due a busy life and looking after 2 small children I've started to get back into it. However, in those 3 years I seem to have developed a 'food baby' lol. I'm 43, approx. 6ft and 75kg so not at all over weight but I want to get fit and ripped. I'm on my feet all day at work walking around 10k and take, our dog for daily walks, I a run once a week and now playing tennis twice a week. I'm looking at home exercise programs on youtube to help target my belly and develop my core strength. My biggest problem is my diet! Due to laziness and general hectic lifestyles like we all have we eat a lot of ready meals during the week, I drink 1-2 bottles of 330ml lager a night and eat 2-3 packets of crisps a day. I have read a lot about clean eating in diet and wondered if someone could give me any advice or point me in the right direction with any links. I know cutting out the crisps and larger would be a huge start and while the larger would not be an issue, I really struggle with healthy snacks in an evening. As I do more exercise I get more and more hungry so need something to either make me more full at meal times or a healthy snack between my evening meal (at 5:30 with the kids) and going to bed at 10:30ish.

Any help with the diet or exercise would be very much appreciated!


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## davies20

First of congratulate yourself for even making a start, that's the hardest point! 

Beside the obvious cutting the crap food & larger - try to be mindful of your carb in take, basically breads and white pastas. 100% up your water intake - I'm drinking roughly 3lt on a good day, 1.5 on a bad! 

Regards home work outs - I've been doing insanity every other day for around 2 years. I'm fit, strong & this has helped my running no end - recently completing a 10k race in 38 mins! All this off the back of basically eating what the hell I want - just in moderation. It's habit for me now to pick the 'healthier option' as I don't want to undo all my hard work! 

Keep at it dude!


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## muzzer

tmitch45 said:


> After a 3 year lay-off from competitive tennis due a busy life and looking after 2 small children I've started to get back into it. However, in those 3 years I seem to have developed a 'food baby' lol. I'm 43, approx. 6ft and 75kg so not at all over weight but I want to get fit and ripped. I'm on my feet all day at work walking around 10k and take, our dog for daily walks, I a run once a week and now playing tennis twice a week. I'm looking at home exercise programs on youtube to help target my belly and develop my core strength. My biggest problem is my diet! Due to laziness and general hectic lifestyles like we all have we eat a lot of ready meals during the week, I drink 1-2 bottles of 330ml lager a night and eat 2-3 packets of crisps a day. I have read a lot about clean eating in diet and wondered if someone could give me any advice or point me in the right direction with any links. I know cutting out the crisps and larger would be a huge start and while the larger would not be an issue, I really struggle with healthy snacks in an evening. As I do more exercise I get more and more hungry so need something to either make me more full at meal times or a healthy snack between my evening meal (at 5:30 with the kids) and going to bed at 10:30ish.
> 
> Any help with the diet or exercise would be very much appreciated!


Jesus, i'm 5'6 ish and the same weight as you :doublesho

As for advice, there are lots of very good places to get advice, Joe Wicks is very good if you can stand his manic delivery on his videos but he is achieving results.

AthleanX and Jeff Cavalierre on Youtube and Instagram is also very good and does videos on all sorts of topics

Brian Keane has written two good books, The Fitness Mindset and Leaner Stronger Faster

Mike Matthews also does a few books but their names escape me right now - he does a very good recipe book both for those of us who choose to eat meat and those who choose to follow a vegan lifestyle. Edited to add the names The Shredded Chef and Muscle Meals for meat eaters and Green and Lean for vegans. I originally came across him for his Bigger Leaner Stronger book but he also does one called Thinner Leaner Stronger for those looking to loose weight rather than build muscle.

Youtbe will have lots of other people offering advice too.


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## tmitch45

davies20 said:


> First of congratulate yourself for even making a start, that's the hardest point!
> 
> Beside the obvious cutting the crap food & larger - try to be mindful of your carb in take, basically breads and white pastas. 100% up your water intake - I'm drinking roughly 3lt on a good day, 1.5 on a bad!
> 
> Regards home work outs - I've been doing insanity every other day for around 2 years. I'm fit, strong & this has helped my running no end - recently completing a 10k race in 38 mins! All this off the back of basically eating what the hell I want - just in moderation. It's habit for me now to pick the 'healthier option' as I don't want to undo all my hard work!
> 
> Keep at it dude!


Sounds good mate I generally drink around 1L water so I know I need to work on that as well as the crap food and cutting down the Larger. I'm looking as swapping things like tuna sandwiches for Tuna salad for lunch times. I've heard good things about insanity so will be looking into that!


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## tmitch45

muzzer said:


> Jesus, i'm 5'6 ish and the same weight as you :doublesho
> 
> As for advice, there are lots of very good places to get advice, Joe Wicks is very good if you can stand his manic delivery on his videos but he is achieving results.
> 
> AthleanX and Jeff Cavalierre on Youtube and Instagram is also very good and does videos on all sorts of topics
> 
> Brian Keane has written two good books, The Fitness Mindset and Leaner Stronger Faster
> 
> Mike Matthews also does a few books but their names escape me right now - he does a very good recipe book both for those of us who choose to eat meat and those who choose to follow a vegan lifestyle. Edited to add the names The Shredded Chef and Muscle Meals for meat eaters and Green and Lean for vegans. I originally came across him for his Bigger Leaner Stronger book but he also does one called Thinner Leaner Stronger for those looking to loose weight rather than build muscle.
> 
> Youtbe will have lots of other people offering advice too.


Thanks for the advice. My wife has a Jo Wicks book so have already looked at that. I'll definitely check out the books you mention.

I may be a tall lanky thing at 75kgs but I look like I'm currently trying to smuggle a football under my T Shirt lol.


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## eibbor

All about tracking calories in Vs out. Get my fitness Pal app you may be surprised when you track a days intake. And be honest! 

Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk


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## Starbuck88

Athlean X on Youtube is brilliant.

You can't target a certain area to lose weight. To loose your belly you need to just bring your body fat percentage down and it'l go.

45 minutes of weights every other day, cut the crap out or at least down and you'll get there.


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## Ryan

Bio Layne’s Fat loss Forever E Book. Only thing you need. Can be a bit doom and gloom to begin with and a bit science orientated but he does well to break it down. :thumb:


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## Alfieharley1

Just to give you an idea if you eat at a calorie deficit you will naturally lose weight. The key here is to use a app and track everything. What I would say is don’t lose to much here. You need to build muscle using your existing fat. I would highly recommend increasing you protein intake. Use your current weight as your target. 75kg x 1.5 is what grams you should eat so 112.5grams of protein. These seems really high but easily achievable. I would look into the boditronics protein. Only stuff I use and is awesome! Depending on calories you want. Anabolic whey (200 low calories, juggernaut approx 700 calories & heavy weight 1400. I would say use anabolic and once you feel you are losing weight to much switch to juggernaut


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## mar00

plenty of advice on diet already I'd just add timing, try and eat regularly through the day and same time each day, 

for training from my long experience  in martial arts particularly kickboxing/MMA which i suppose is similar actions on the body to tennis, kettlebell training has been best for core, but also the general physical training side of MMA/kickboxing give you core also full body strength and endurance, ithey type of training has a lots of variation in exercises and more fun so probably more likely to keep it up and you don't need lots of kit or room,

the important thing for best quickest results with training and diet is consistency


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## uruk hai

The only thing I can add is to make sure you get enough protein from good sources and good luck with your training.


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## Rayaan

If you want to lose body fat, the calories in vs out is the best way to go about it. You need atleast 400-500 calories a day deficit but the way to achieve this depends on how many calories you're taking in in the first place. 

For example, taking in 3000 calories, its fairly easy to remove 500. If you're taking in 2000, its much harder so youd need to increase your workout rather than reduce calories.

Remember that cardio is one of the quickest ways of leading to a calorie deficit. However, only cardio causes you to lose muscle mass. Id probably say 5 day workout - weight training every day, 3 times a week cardio, leg day on friday with no cardio.

Building a ripped body is 80% diet though. Too many people you'll find overcomplicate it. Chances are, even if you don't change your lifestyle/diet just going to the gym 5 days a week everyday will help you lose something provided that nothing else changes, itll just be really slow


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## Ennoch

Calories in vs calories out is true, but also true is that not all calories are created equal (sugar vs fat as an example), and it's also true that alcohol is horrific for weight. If you starve your body then your body simply holds on to fat more readily, so when you return to normal eating so will your weight. Look into the 5/2 diet and intermittent fasting along with low carbs and you'll do well. My dad was up at around 95kg post cancer treatment and diagnosed pre-diabetic. He's now at 70kg, has completely normal blood sugars and is fitter than he has been since he was on the Scottish fencing team in the sixties!

I'd also avoid eating crap, and I include protein shakes in that statement. Eat more vegetables, more fats, and less sugars/processed carbs. Replace white rice with red or black, or even better baked kale etc, and make your own food. Ready meals are filled with sugar so they really don't help your insulin sensitivity (can cause pre-diabetes), and alcohol prevents your body burning your fat stores. The result? You gain weight and struggle to shift it.

Also, try to avoid reading bro-science from people on social media as all they're doing is marketing stuff that's given to them, and can never back up what they say.

I'd recommend getting some books and having a read;
The Fast Diet/8 Week Blood Sugar Diet/Fast Exercise - three books by Dr Michael Mosley
The great cholesterol con - Dr Malcolm Kendrick
For recipe ideas then The Food Medic for Life by Dr Hazel Wallace has some great ideas, as does The Doctor's Kitchen by Dr Rupy Aujla.

The key thing I learned is that you can't exercise out a bad diet; you need to eat the right things and in the right quantities. That isn't to the level of measuring out grams of your 'macros' as some people like to do it, but just making sure things are balanced. Less sugar and less processed food being the main two, but to be fair they predominantly go hand in hand; cut out one and you'll cut the other.

Edited to add a link to my dad's blog about his fitness as someone who was diagnosed with prostate cancer and subsequently pre-diabetes. He's now clear of both and has more energy at 65 than he did at 40. 
www.ianennoch.com
It's a bit wordy at times, and I need to chase him to sort out some of the formatting but it's got some great info in there - the benefit of being retired is that you seem to have much more time to invest in your own research projects! The contents page isn't live linked so you're best using the drop down at the top right.


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## beambeam

A mixed bag of activity and diet advice so I will refrain from adding anymore except that I agree with the calorie deficit - just make sure your activity does not totally outrun your intake as you still need food for growth and repair. Oh, and you might find it more useful to monitor for a weekly average calorie intake rather than daily.

The key thing that has helped me is food prep. When I'm hopping between shifts at different jobs and going to uni or training I can find myself reaching for the easy and quick options when I am hungry. To combat this I've gotten in the habit of having food stored in the fridge in Tupperware. Quite often it's just a chicken breast with a simple salad and other bits but my absolute champion dish is overnight oats. 

40g rolled oats on the bottom, top it all with a layer of yoghurt. Greek is ideal but I prefer the runnier stuff as it really seeps into the oats and softens them up. If left a couple days it is unreal. Oh, and top off the yoghurt with mixed fruit. I vary between blueberries, raspberries, pomegranate or simply a bag of frozen mixed fruit from Lidl.

But yeah, having stuff already prepared and in the fridge waiting has helped me avoid grabbing something that probably isn't the best choice and so far I'm down a good whack and it's been easily achieved.


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## Tykebike

davies20 said:


> Beside the obvious cutting the crap food & larger - try to be mindful of your carb in take, basically breads and white pastas. 100% up your water intake - I'm drinking roughly 3lt on a good day, 1.5 on a bad!


Out of interest and assuming the water is over and above other liquids that you drink, why do you find it necessary to drink so much? Are you constantly thirsty?
I only drink about 1/2 a litre in 3 hours mountain biking and about the same in 45 mins exercise class followed by another 45 mins step aerobics. I add a tablet of PH1500 from Precision Hydration to help ward off cramps due to salt loss. According to some I should feel thirsty because I am a type 2 diabetic but I can't say that I do feel thirsty very often. I drink at certain times out of habit not out of necessity.
I think that the advice of drinking at least 2l of water a day has been discredited and that the figure of 2l was an estimate of how much water is ingested throughout the day from all sources rather than an additional 2l of water on top of all the other fluid sources.


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## davies20

Tykebike said:


> Out of interest and assuming the water is over and above other liquids that you drink, why do you find it necessary to drink so much? Are you constantly thirsty?
> I only drink about 1/2 a litre in 3 hours mountain biking and about the same in 45 mins exercise class followed by another 45 mins step aerobics. I add a tablet of PH1500 from Precision Hydration to help ward off cramps due to salt loss. According to some I should feel thirsty because I am a type 2 diabetic but I can't say that I do feel thirsty very often. I drink at certain times out of habit not out of necessity.
> I think that the advice of drinking at least 2l of water a day has been discredited and that the figure of 2l was an estimate of how much water is ingested throughout the day from all sources rather than an additional 2l of water on top of all the other fluid sources.


Firstly, You hit the nail on the head with Habit, mainly! I often pick up the water bottle & drink without even thinking!

Secondly, I just enjoy drinking water, i find it refreshing & tasty (Strange i know!)

Thirdly, I feel like I have now got to the point where my body knows when i'm not drinking water like I usually do. So for example, like yourself how you find drinking 0.5lt in 3 hrs OK - My body would be in meltdown! Sluggish with a mild, dull headache!

Finally, I strongly believe it stops me snacking!

I wish I could quote you some amazing facts & figures - but I cant! I base it purely on how drinking that much makes me feel, which is much better! Also, its got to be better for you then the alt drinks available/ Convenient! :thumb:

Hope that makes sense :lol:


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## Mcpx

Plan meals and prepare in advance, takes all the guesswork out of it, saves you time and removes the only advantage of convenience foods over healthy options. Also have a selection of healthy snacks available, nuts instead of crisps etc to remove temptation.


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## Ennoch

Tykebike said:


> Out of interest and assuming the water is over and above other liquids that you drink, why do you find it necessary to drink so much? Are you constantly thirsty?
> I only drink about 1/2 a litre in 3 hours mountain biking and about the same in 45 mins exercise class followed by another 45 mins step aerobics. I add a tablet of PH1500 from Precision Hydration to help ward off cramps due to salt loss. According to some I should feel thirsty because I am a type 2 diabetic but I can't say that I do feel thirsty very often. I drink at certain times out of habit not out of necessity.
> I think that the advice of drinking at least 2l of water a day has been discredited and that the figure of 2l was an estimate of how much water is ingested throughout the day from all sources rather than an additional 2l of water on top of all the other fluid sources.


It depends how your body is, and what environment you're in. In a normal air conditioned office I need to drink 2-3 litres a day to ensure I'm hydrated otherwise I feel knackered and dehydrated when I go out and climb/run etc after work. Conversely I can go out winter climbing and be out in the mountains for 12hrs and yet only drink 1.5l despite being active all day. Or in the Alpine environment when you're at altitude (therefore dehydrating more quickly) and yet only have 1.5l to drink per 24hr period. But that doesn't allow me to give my best performance.



Mcpx said:


> Plan meals and prepare in advance, takes all the guesswork out of it, saves you time and removes the only advantage of convenience foods over healthy options. Also have a selection of healthy snacks available, nuts instead of crisps etc to remove temptation.


I'd suggest the opposite in respect of snacks; the little and often/snacking approach simply keeps your insulin levels raised, increasing insulin resistance - this is not good as it's the first step on the way to pre-diabetes and subsequently type 2 diabetes. As far as dietary advice goes it would appear to be up there with the American Heart Foundation saying that processed sugar was the best thing for you because it was so pure. For sure, snacking on nuts etc is going to be better than crisps or chocolate but if you can you'll be better off ditching snacking altogether.


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## vsideboy

Go on here

https://tdeecalculator.net/

work out what your daily expenditure is roughly (you say you're on your feet all day)

Whatever it comes out as is roughly your maintenance calories so that's what you need daily to remain exactly the same as you are currently, if you want to lose weight then aim to reduce daily calories to 500 cals per day below that maintenance level. 
Measure and weigh yourself weekly for a month or so and if you're still the same weight and all your muscles are the same size then reduce slightly more to 600 less than maintenance.

As someone said, AthleanX on youtube has thousands of informative videos as Jeff pretty much posts every other day for the past 5 or 6 years. Well worth a look at and he's about the same age as us as well (I'm same as you pal) some good videos of his on nutrition as well mate.

Good Luck


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## turbotnator

Plan your meals, keep shopping lists, prep food for the week! Loads of other good tips I found here.


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## turbotnator

tmitch45 said:


> After a 3 year lay-off from competitive tennis due a busy life and looking after 2 small children I've started to get back into it. However, in those 3 years I seem to have developed a 'food baby' lol. I'm 43, approx. 6ft and 75kg so not at all over weight but I want to get fit and ripped. I'm on my feet all day at work walking around 10k and take, our dog for daily walks, I a run once a week and now playing tennis twice a week. I'm looking at home exercise programs on youtube to help target my belly and develop my core strength. My biggest problem is my diet! Due to laziness and general hectic lifestyles like we all have we eat a lot of ready meals during the week, I drink 1-2 bottles of 330ml lager a night and eat 2-3 packets of crisps a day. I have read a lot about clean eating in diet and wondered if someone could give me any advice or point me in the right direction with any links. I know cutting out the crisps and larger would be a huge start and while the larger would not be an issue, I really struggle with healthy snacks in an evening. As I do more exercise I get more and more hungry so need something to either make me more full at meal times or a healthy snack between my evening meal (at 5:30 with the kids) and going to bed at 10:30ish.
> 
> Any help with the diet or exercise would be very much appreciated!


Sounds like you're well on your way to getting healthier already! I think, like you've pointed out, the ready meals, beer and snacks are probably holding you back a little and by addressing those you're golden.

However! Life's busy. So I think starting with the beer is a good idea. I was drinking every night for quite a while and then I decided to try swapping out the beer for sparkling water. Now I never drink during the week. I think for me it's more having something to do with your hands - so could be worth a shot.

For healthy snacks, I think chicken is always really satiating and you can get a huge pack of frozen pre-cooked chicken from Iceland for about a fiver. Nuts are a little more expensive but they'll fill you up really nicely. Apples are good for it as well! I find Granny Smiths really satisfying, so maybe give that a shot.

EDIT: I almost forgot: if you're looking to cut up you might also find it helpful to use some kind of multivitamin to make sure you're getting everything you need. I get Centrum which is recommended for people trying to get fitter, but there's probably loads of cheaper ones you can find elsewhere and all.


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## Tykebike

turbotnator said:


> Now I never drink during the week..


I did that as a couple of times when I was working in the office I felt that I wasn't quite on the ball, not bad but it did make me think. When I went for my diabetes review the nurse asked how many units I drank and I said 21 per week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Oh so you are a binge drinker! Well judging by that criteria if you have one drink all year then you are a binge drinker!
Let the training begin in the supermarket, load up the trolley with as much heavy stuff as it will hold, you'll be burning calories whilst pushing around the isles:lol:


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