Notebook

Hi
I am 6 foot and now 22 stone... Arghh. I used to train way back and finished training back in 1989. ^ days a week and loved it. Life took over and now its time ( actually time years ago ) to sort myself out.
I want to shed lots of weight as you can imagine, initially without the gym ,just using my bodyweight, pressups dips etc and lots of cardio using my newly aquired mountain bike and local canal path.
Anyway, I lost about 2 stone around 8 years ago by cutting carbs - atkins - and came accross this site by accident.
I read one of the articles regarding cycling the carbs, loading on 1 day a week - a day off as I saw it.
Does this work or do you have to stick to zero carbs? What about calories? do I ignore these or do I have to consume a basel rate etc?
Protein drinks I notice are top of the agenda for lots of you, as I am not looking to build only save my muscle, are these a good idea? I work shifts and every other week I am up at 4-50am and cant stomach breakfast. I think I could drink one these, so would it have to be whey protein etc or any protein drink..
I also tend to eat last thing at night... ALSO A NO NO.
Also what do you do for fibre? How much cycling etc
Anyway, any info appreciated,
Best regards
Nick

JawD

Hey fella. Welcome aboard. On the steep learning curve myself

I'll start the ball rolling though with not having a breakfast is the no no, not eating late at night. You can eat late at night, if you eat the right things. You should though eat at the start of the day. Get into the habit. You mention protein shakes, these are good if in a particular meal you are missing protein. So for example, I eat oats for my breakfast.. Whats missing? Fats and protein. So with my oats I have a protein shake with water and add a cap full of Omega369 oil (thats the oil bottle cap not my mixer cap!).

If you are struggling to eat at all at breakfast, you could just make up a shake and add some oats to it. Job done.

As for the type of protein, I use whey. Just be careful, all proteins drinks are not equal. A quick look around the site will have you heading in the right direction. For me its about getting a good product at a decent value.

Carb cycling is something Im looking into myself. At the moment, I would say I was eating to be in a cal deficite each day. I've been doing this since October. I have the odd cheat meal and Im used to the diet now. My worry is that so is my body and perhaps I need to change things.

My understanding of carb cycling is you would have a couple of low days and then a high. Note I say low days not nill days. Im sure someone can go into more detail here, I dont want to say too much on it incase Im totally wrong as like I say, Im still reading up on this myself at the moment

As for eating late at night, like I say, its not really a no no, just depends what you eat. If you had a huge bowl of breakfast cereal (which is exactly what I used to do) then essentially you are re-fuelling your body to sleep! Your body wont need it so will store it. As fat. (maybe not quite as I say there but I think thats the basic idea). But, eating some good protein and good fat I think is fine.

Im sure some will come and give you more detailed info (and probably correct me!), either way, well done for getting started and good luck

Kezz

I am going to try carb cycling in a couple of weeks...... regarding missing breakfast, i have no idea how anyone could possibly not feel hungry in the morning, when i come in fron doing my cardio i could eat a bloody fried horse!!!!