# Dieting/training advice...



## Young_JD (Mar 8, 2013)

Hi guys, 

I'm after some advice from people who've succeed in hitting their weight loss goals and they're training goals. I'm 19 years old on Saturday, I'm just not happy with the way i look, I'm 11st9lbs and about 5ft11" and too me it's too much!! To tell the truth I'm quite chubby, more so around my chest and stomach. I'm not after a perfect body or becoming the next work strong man, i just want to drop a few lbs and tone up aswell as put on some muscle! I do quite a physical job, I'm a builders merchant, so i know this will help me but when it comes to dieting and training i haven't got a clue!! 

So hopefully someone on here will be able to help & offer some advice into dieting, training and the best supplements to help me along the way!

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, Jack.


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Firstly you need a life style change not a diet. All my friends come to me when they want nutrition and training advice, there is nly one that has succeeded as it doesn't matter how hard I try, I can't get most past the fact they are "on a diet", as many quality tasty meals as I can send them, I hear more excuses about how they "won't be controlled" and "don't see why they have to go without". Their mindset is TOTALLY wrong

I'm gonna say forget the training for now, and concentrate on nutrition for a while. If you are young and have a physical job, but are still over weight, I'm gonna say your eating habits are all wrong. Remember some simple things:

The longer you leave between meals, the better your body becomes at storing what you eat. Multiply that by eating poor food and you end up storing crap, with nothing good being used. The trick to loosing weight is eating MORE, but eating smaller portions more frequently. 

"eat like a king in the morning, a prince for lunch and a pauper for dinner" is a good way to remember that you need to reduce the size and the carb content of your meals as the day goes on. If you can eat the bulk of your daily carb and fat intake before 1pm, there is less to store over night

It doesn't have to be expensive. For the price of a bacon butty in the morning, and a macy D's or chippy at dinner, I can eat a big breakfast, a fresh meat and a fresh fish dish each day. Tomorrow I'm on a fruit and Oates pot and a couple of hard boiled eggs for breakfast, a massive tuna salad for dinner 1 and a bowl of smoked salmon and baked asparagus for dinner 2. I keep nuts and sliced fruit for snacking on. This costs me no more per week than doing it the other way. 

Always have a bottle of water with you. Sometimes your body confuses thirst with hunger. If you have a bottle of water by your side you will find yourself reaching for it a lot. It keeps fake hunger at bay. 

You can get protien from non meat products too. In fact, probably the best provider is quinoa. It is cheap, p!ss easy to make, you can ave it hot or cold, and s one f the few complete proteins available to you (it contains all 8 aminos) Make a big tasty salad (warm or cold) with it for meat free meals

Check out you tube on how to cook in bulk. It's all the same, just adjust portion sizes to suit. 

Remember it takes 2 weeks to form a habit. You don't have to stick with it long to really change your life style. But the trick is to be open to the fact healthy food doesn't have to be boring or bland. Once you start I promise you won't look back


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## boromfccup (Mar 24, 2011)

good advice


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## Bod42 (Jun 4, 2009)

Cant go wrong with looking at this for training advice.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=238868

Your bang in the middle for the government recommended weight (which I think are to light) so I wouldnt say you need to lose weight, i would say you need to add muscle. And society as a whole needs to stop worrying about "weight" as a means to looking better. If you put on 2 stone of muscle and lose a stone of fat, your obviously a stone heavier but will look miles better.


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## Bustanut (Jun 11, 2011)

Stangalang, could you post some more examples of meals please. Just researching quinoa now.


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## Leebo310 (Sep 30, 2013)

Some top advice given so far mate!

As Bod says, weight is just a number anyway so don't get too hung up on it. Go off what you look like and how your cloths fit, and then when you start working out look at the improvements of how much you can lift. These are much better numbers to actually pay attention to!

How much alcohol do you drink by the way? Are you currently doing any exercise?


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## Young_JD (Mar 8, 2013)

Hi guys, thanks for the advice, Definitely something to think about. I get what you mean about eating small portions quite often, but some days i just don't have time!!

I don't drink any alcohol bud & well i have to lift and move quite a lot of heavy stuff at work and try to go to the gym at least once a week


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

I would have considered your weight to be in proportion to your height, certainly not far off. if your weight is constantly increasing then that's a different matter.


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## V3nom (Oct 31, 2012)

Bustanut said:


> Stangalang, could you post some more examples of meals please. Just researching quinoa now.


THIS! :thumb:


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## Young_JD (Mar 8, 2013)

S63 said:


> I would have considered your weight to be in proportion to your height, certainly not far off. if your weight is constantly increasing then that's a different matter.


It fluctuates between 11 & 12st depending on where I've been and what I've been doing bud..I don't so much want to actually lose weight, i want to lose body fat..


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## Leebo310 (Sep 30, 2013)

Young_JD said:


> Hi guys, thanks for the advice, Definitely something to think about. I get what you mean about eating small portions quite often, but some days i just don't have time!!
> 
> I don't drink any alcohol bud & well i have to lift and move quite a lot of heavy stuff at work and try to go to the gym at least once a week


What is your current workout at the gym mate? 
Also, what do your current diet and eating habits look like?

Sorry mate, just assumed your user name was an indication of your favored drink


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## Young_JD (Mar 8, 2013)

Varied mate, usually do a bit of cardio and bit of weights, but don't concentrate on one area. My eating habits and diet are pretty pure, tend to grab what i can when i can, also eat quite late on a night! Haha, no mate just my nickname


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## horico (Jul 17, 2010)

stangalang said:


> Firstly you need a life style change not a diet. All my friends come to me when they want nutrition and training advice, there is nly one that has succeeded as it doesn't matter how hard I try, I can't get most past the fact they are "on a diet", as many quality tasty meals as I can send them, I hear more excuses about how they "won't be controlled" and "don't see why they have to go without". Their mindset is TOTALLY wrong
> 
> I'm gonna say forget the training for now, and concentrate on nutrition for a while. If you are young and have a physical job, but are still over weight, I'm gonna say your eating habits are all wrong. Remember some simple things:
> 
> ...


I appreciate you spent a while tapping this out buddy but the actual content, while may possibly work, is a regurgitation of several of the mistruths about diet and nutrition.

Excuse the point by point post but I'll happily expand / explain if asked.

Carbs: when you have carbs and / or the type does not affect weight loss / gain at all. You could go without carbs all day, have all of them just before bed and all would be fine. These do not miraculously turn to fat!

Meal Frequency: your body doesn't practise at storing food depending on how long it was since the last feed, this adaption happens over weeks and based on OVERALL intake, not intra-day.

Calories: The actual trick to losing weight is being in a calorie deficit for several days in a row, over a period of time. The bigger the deficit the faster the loss but greater the lean tissue reduction (eg. Muscle).

Stangalang is right about the habit and lifestyle change, but I would say this is more about knowing about food in general and what it's contribution to your overall diet is. When losing bodyfat, I don't consider it a diet, just less than I would eat on a maintenance or bulk. Pizza, kebabs and such like are never off the menu but I know what's in them and what effect on my total macronutrient intake is. I can then make adjustments to suit.

If you've already been gymming it, you will need to reduce bodyfat or build muscle one at a time. You can't do both at the same time. If you feel flabby, go for the cut, then maintain for a short time before then eating more and gaining muscle if you wish.

HTH :thumb:


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## Leebo310 (Sep 30, 2013)

[


horico said:


> I appreciate you spent a while tapping this out buddy but the actual content, while may possibly work, is a regurgitation of several of the mistruths about diet and nutrition.
> 
> Excuse the point by point post but I'll happily expand / explain if asked.
> 
> ...


Not meaning this in a funny way or anything mate, I'm genuinely asking but are you a nutritionist/dietician/doctor or something?


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## horico (Jul 17, 2010)

Leebo310 said:


> Not meaning this in a funny way or anything mate, I'm genuinely asking but are you a nutritionist/dietician or something similar?


No mate, I'm not. I just like to get to the bottom of stuff and I have an interest in this kind of thing. It wasn't always like this, I was a full on 'bro -science' follower years ago! :newbie:

To be fair though, I've seen / heard personal trainers who have completed courses spout a lot of crap - the last one I saw yesterday being one of my favourites: 'you need to confuse your muscles'. :wall:


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

Seems to me that for every argument regarding good health there is a counter argument with some very knowledgable people having differing views.


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## Leebo310 (Sep 30, 2013)

S63 said:


> Seems to me that for every argument regarding good health there is a counter argument with some very knowledgable people having differing views.


Pretty much sums it up!


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## Leebo310 (Sep 30, 2013)

horico said:


> No mate, I'm not. I just like to get to the bottom of stuff and I have an interest in this kind of thing. It wasn't always like this, I was a full on 'bro -science' follower years ago! :newbie:
> 
> To be fair though, I've seen / heard personal trainers who have completed courses spout a lot of crap - the last one I saw yesterday being one of my favourites: 'you need to confuse your muscles'. :wall:


Yeah agree on the pts, there are some awful ones about, giving out such generalised advice and just after the money!
On the other hand there are also a helluva lot of extremely good ones, and you can generally see which ones these are!

OP - as others have said, there are loads of things that people will say is the "best" way to do stuff. To be honest none of it is potentially wrong (give or take!) and pretty much most things done consistently will give results
There are so many contradictory pieces of research too which really don't help! I used to get mens health but stopped as literally each month there would be a piece of "research" that directly contradicted what I'd seen in previous issues! (Coffee and eggs being good/bad for you were constant offenders!)

I was pretty much the same stats as you (give or take a couple of inches in height) when I started working out properly about 5 years ago so all I can do is give you advice that personally worked for me and that I've also subsequently helped out friends with. (If you want a full list of what I ate and how I structured my workouts then just send me a pm)
I am extremely happy with what I can lift now and what I look like, even though weight wise I only dropped less than a stone. I also like to think I'm fairly strong for my size (not trying to boast or anything, I'm just genuinely happy with the weights I can shift as a percentage of my body weight! ) so regardless as to whether the methods I used had any scientific research or proof behind them doesn't really make any difference to me as I'm happy with the results! 
For starters, I always went off what I see more than what is necessarily "scientifically proven" 
What works amazing for certain people doesn't for others, regardless as to the reasoning and facts (or lack of) behind it and it can take a while finding what works best for you. Plus it's about enjoying it too. You're not looking to be a pro athlete or anything so there's no point in doing something you hate just because someone tells you "it's the best exercise ever" It's way easier to follow a workout and diet plan that you actually enjoy.
Again, just my personal opinion but I will generally listen more to people who look like I want to look like. For example I'd be very apprehensive about taking advice from the pt at my gym who (at least to me) looks slightly overweight. Yes they might have an amazing wealth of knowledge that I am potentially missing out of but my opinion is if they can't get results on themselves then that doesn't fill me with any confidence that they can shape me. In the same way I wouldn't trust a builder who's house is falling down or a mechanic with a non working car  Wrong or not that's just my opinion!

At the end of the day you can follow any of the advice given here by all the others who have posted and as long as you are consistent with it, then you should see some changes.

Like I said I'm happy to give you some of the workouts and eating plans that I used so just pm me if you want 

Sorry for the essay length response, I got a bit carried away :-D


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Well whilst peeps may want to argue about specifics, I think we can all agree on some very basic truths, sh!t in, sh!t out, good in, good out! The more good you eat, the more you can eat, the more regular you eat, the less you crave, the less you crave, the less you cave in. 
There is a healthier alternative to any craving you may get, and excuses of time and cost are really only in the mind. 

Perhaps a "sticky" thread everyone can pitch in on for healthy meals and cooking in bulk etc would be good? We would all benefit then from sharing in each others successes? I know it would help me from getting bored and save time searching all over!


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## AS_BO (Sep 29, 2013)

+1 stang, great idea.


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