Beklet

I hate diets. OK, I hate being told what to do, but at the moment, I hate being a lard**** more.....

I've been on a couple of diets before. The first was courtesy of a PT at my gy and was the traditional high carb low fat low calorie type thing. Was fine for about a week until I started exercising more and was just hungry all the time, craving sugar and fat.....oh and I put on weight, lots of it!
More recently, I started a keto diet - first 2 weeks were very strict, then I added in more carbs, mainly fruit and extra veg. Apart from feeling weak until I'd added carbs, this seemed to do the trick, until I ran out of meat and cash... :p

I'm definitely up for doing the lower carb or carb cycling route - my main goal is to lose the blubber - I have a fair bit of muscle under it but I want to keep as much strength as possible too!

I'm going shopping tomorrow and I'm on a very tight budget, but on my list so far is chicken, lean mince, pork loin steaks, tuna, coconut milk, eggs and mackerel. Fruit and veg I'll get from the market.

As for supplements I have vitamins, minerals, cod liver oil, creatine, glucosamine and protein powder.

Anything else essential I need to get?

(btw I hate oats, they make me heave...)

Anyone have any idea on amounts of carbs required when cycling? Is it calculated in g per lb of bodyweight?

If you need some idea of activity levels, I train with weights 3 times a week and avoid cardio, however given my current status as proper chubby and unfit, I will have to do some cardio - I'm going to start with 3 times a week 30 mins.

Bigger&Stronger

Foods look good so far (girls are nearly ALWAYS better at eating their fresh fruit and vegetables than guys in my experience), perhaps ditch the coconut milk (it's a good source of saturated fats but maybe go for the oil instead) and buy something like flax seed oil, UDO's oil, hemp oil or even just more fish oil!

Supplements look fine, glucosamine is a mixed bag in my experience, if it works for you, superb but I don't bother (just take more fish oil).

WHAT!!!?!?!! (oats are my favourite food btw)

Here's a great article on T-nation about carb and calorie cycling, check it out:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=811783

I would definitely add in some cardio. Whist the majority of the weight loss will come from calorie restriction adding in 20-30mins of low intensity cardio after your main workout would be a great idea (such as incline treadmill walking)

Good luck!! Let us know how you get on and ask any more questions you might have.

Beklet

Thanks, that was a helpful article! ;)

I have glucosamine because I bought a bit bottle pretty cheap and I'm getting creaky in my old age - might as well use it up! The coconut milk helps with my curry cravings.........

As for the oats - they're sloppy and slimy and inedible without plenty of milk!

Cardio I usually to 15 minutes each on a couple ofmachines - usually jogging and the stepper - should do the trick. Maybe if I got my **** into gear and cycled to the gym (6 mile round trip) it would help

Bigger&Stronger

Lol, oats are so damn good! Add cinnamon, cocoa powder, raisins, honey, yoghurt, fruit, nuts, seeds etc. it'll make any porridge taste good!

If you don't like the texture, perhaps make a home-made muesli with the large r (jumbo) oats and eat cold with milk and honey.

I only push oats because they're full of goodness, everyone should be eating them!

Yeah, use it up if it's there but the evidence for it isn't amazing, I think the fish oil is much better and has multiple health benefits rather than just one.

Low-intensity cardio for 20-30 minutes post workout would be great, but start at 15 minutes and work your way up.

...of course dragging the bike out of the shed would be good option!

Beklet

OK back with more questions...

Just seen Pscarb's diet plan on another thread on here, and it looks OK but very low carb leaves me entirely incapable of lifting weights! I was wondering if doing that diet with small adaptations (adding a piece of fruit every day and maybe small amounts of rice) will work well. It's not a diet I could do permanently given the lack of choice of food and all the travelling I do, but as a kick up the backside till I can formulate something more permanent?

For reference, I'm 4' 11", 10st 7lbs and looking to lose plenty of flab. I have muscle, quite a bit of it, but obviously I don't want to lose any!

Pscarb

why can't you do it every day?? i travel between 600-900miles a week stay in hotels 3-4 nights a week yet still stick to a pre-contest diet, if you want the results you can do it.

although the diet is low in carbs it is high in good fats and as long as you replace a good portion of carbs with good fats your energy will not suffer don't dismiss the diet without trying it first

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Beklet

Most of the hotel travel is work and full board - low carb isn't usually a problem at one place I stay, to be fair, though the cheese board is a killer!

OK will give it a try, but I'm very wary of feeling tired - last time I did low carb I could barely finish a workout! Luckily I've just been in the cheap section of the supermarket and got bags of spinach for 30p :biggrin:

And I have no more hotel stays for 3 weeks so should get into a routine

I'm assuming the veg I can have are generally anything leafy and green or low carb?

And last question (for now) - Is a portion of nuts about an ounce?

I'm quite happy to be cutting out carbs again actually - my skin was great before

Pscarb

well you have it good then as i only have evening meal at the hotels i stay at then that is just fillet steak and veg or sea bass and veg, if you are really worried about the carbs then swap the eggs in the morning for 2 packets of oats so simple along with 2scoops protein....

salad/veg does mean leafy green or green veg but because you are not competing things like tomatoes/peppers/mushrooms/onions etc are all fine as well...

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Beklet

Marvellous, that's very helpful, and I've just eaten a plate of scrambled eggs so I've made a start

I might even get to the gym today, if this headache goes

Pscarb

the headache is probably from dehydration try upping your water to 4L a day

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Bigger&Stronger

Try the diet by Pscarb for at least 2 weeks to give it the benefit of the doubt (obviously if you get sick in this time come off it - very unlikely).

Some people just do not do well on low carbohydrate diets for extended periods of time (more than a few weeks) and are better suited to a 'higher' (read that as moderate) carbohydrate intake.

In short, keep at the diet for a bit longer and if it really does not agree with you (difficulty in preparing meals/food choices is no excuse) we can come up with something else but I would urge you to stick at it until you are at least seeing a significant amount of fat loss then you can start to reintroduce carbohydrates into your diet.

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carly

I agree, I travel to shoots and always prepare a lunch box, if you want great results you will make time to prepare food so you can stick to the diet plan.

Beklet

Cheers all, I know that from a fat loss point of view, I tolerate low carb very well - I felt OK after the first 4 or 5 days, not tired, and I was losing fat no problem. I even weaned myself off sugar in tea (sweeteners taste filthy!) but it became a problem when I tried to exercise....

Luckily I have no site visits for a couple of weeks, but I often spend a lot of my day in the car, my biggest problem is trying to eat while driving- I'll just have to memorise lay-by locations in Herts :biggrin:

Pscarb

eat sugar free chewing gum helps me alot....the trouble with most low carb diets is that the carbs are not replaced with good fats this might have been your issue in the past.
try the diet and let me know how you find it i will help you modify it if it does not work as it should

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Beklet

Thanks very much - yes sugar free gum was my saviour! I have to admit I wasn't worrying about which fats I was eating, there was plenty of the saturated variety! My headache has gone now (3 days!) so it's business as usual from Monday