Discussion
Currently eat large bowl of porridge oats with semi-skimmed milk and 1 scoop promax. Currently 9 stone 12, about 15% BF. Mix of KB snatch sessions, concept 2 HIIT and KB strength sessions, 1 day rest per week. Trying to cut to lowest possible BF. Have PT who advises me on diet as well as everything else and very pleased with results over past 12 months. Info on here from the experst is invaluable. My PT tells me to experiment and see what works for me now that hard work has been done, shifted 2 stone. Breakfast - should I stick woth oats for carbs..? Would I be better off with nuts / fruit ? Too much fructose / calories ? It's quite tricky because I am not trying to bulk up, just cut to low BF but this is long -term / for life not just the beach ! Any previous experiences / advice would be great to hear...thx
If you consume less calories than you expend then you will lose weight – whether these calories come from fats, carbs or protein really doesn’t matter. Keep your protein high and cut back primarily on your carbs and then fat would be my advice.
When you eat does not really matter.
Personally, if I eat breakfast, I seem to get really hungry during the morning. Also, if I had porridge or something for breakfast (say 300-400 cals), I would have less calories left I could consume later in the day. So for me, eating less when I get up is more beneficial as I am less hungry in the morning and I get to eat more later in the day.
So, I tend to have a spoon of natural peanut butter (around 100cals) when I get up with a cup of tea or coffee.
Once you get to a decent BF% level, it should be easier to maintain as you are not ‘losing’ anymore, you are eating your maintenance, so you will be consuming slightly more calories.
If you make some relatively big changes in your activity levels (start training twice a day for example) then you need to make sure you are getting more calories. I only train in the evenings but if I started to run 2 or 3 times a week as well as do my 5 or so days training, then the days I go running in the morning I would probably increase my calories slightly to compensate. If I was on a harder cut/diet, I would increase my activity and not increase my calories (creating a larger deficit).
I put on weight easily and carbs are by far my weakness. I only need to look at some quick digesting carbs and I seem to bloat up.
Remember, there are 2 ways to lose weight – reduce your calories or burn more calories.
Try not to over-complicate things… proteins, fats, carbs. See foods like that and the energy they contain.
If you devise a good food plan you will still be able to fit in things you enjoy. I know people who can ‘shred’ and still eat chocolate every day.
When you eat does not really matter.
Personally, if I eat breakfast, I seem to get really hungry during the morning. Also, if I had porridge or something for breakfast (say 300-400 cals), I would have less calories left I could consume later in the day. So for me, eating less when I get up is more beneficial as I am less hungry in the morning and I get to eat more later in the day.
So, I tend to have a spoon of natural peanut butter (around 100cals) when I get up with a cup of tea or coffee.
Once you get to a decent BF% level, it should be easier to maintain as you are not ‘losing’ anymore, you are eating your maintenance, so you will be consuming slightly more calories.
If you make some relatively big changes in your activity levels (start training twice a day for example) then you need to make sure you are getting more calories. I only train in the evenings but if I started to run 2 or 3 times a week as well as do my 5 or so days training, then the days I go running in the morning I would probably increase my calories slightly to compensate. If I was on a harder cut/diet, I would increase my activity and not increase my calories (creating a larger deficit).
I put on weight easily and carbs are by far my weakness. I only need to look at some quick digesting carbs and I seem to bloat up.
Remember, there are 2 ways to lose weight – reduce your calories or burn more calories.
Try not to over-complicate things… proteins, fats, carbs. See foods like that and the energy they contain.
If you devise a good food plan you will still be able to fit in things you enjoy. I know people who can ‘shred’ and still eat chocolate every day.
Thanks, Muon. All makes great sense - it's so obvious of course but so good to hear it re-inforced from others. Fortunately I am in the lucky situation that I can train pretty much whenever I want to, so could add in a few more sessions. I think I have got stuck in a bit of a rut and eat whenever I feel I should rather than when I want. Just need to freshen things up.
Another big mistake that people seem to make is they aren’t counting everything that enters their mouths… like that 300+cal mocha they’ve just had at Starbucks, or that pint of orange juice that contains 200 calories. Or people will have a couple of squares of chocolate and not include it in their daily plans… they may do this 3-4 times a day at an office when others bring food in to share. It’s not a problem if you do these things but make sure you include them in your daily macro’s.
When you calorie count you see that some foods have a lot of calories. This was my dinner last night: a small/medium chicken breast grilled without oil, 2 hard boiled eggs, a single portion of cous-cous, 1 teaspoon of extra extra light mayo and some very low calorie hot sauce = 550 calories. A protein shake with fully skimmed milk will stand you in at over 200 calories.
A coffee made with semi skimmed milk will be around 30-40 calories. 3 or 4 a day and you’re 100-200 calories down on what is effectively just fluids. If you have sugar in your coffee, that's even more.
When you calorie count you see that some foods have a lot of calories. This was my dinner last night: a small/medium chicken breast grilled without oil, 2 hard boiled eggs, a single portion of cous-cous, 1 teaspoon of extra extra light mayo and some very low calorie hot sauce = 550 calories. A protein shake with fully skimmed milk will stand you in at over 200 calories.
A coffee made with semi skimmed milk will be around 30-40 calories. 3 or 4 a day and you’re 100-200 calories down on what is effectively just fluids. If you have sugar in your coffee, that's even more.
Bolebroke said:
Thanks, Muon. All makes great sense - it's so obvious of course but so good to hear it re-inforced from others. Fortunately I am in the lucky situation that I can train pretty much whenever I want to, so could add in a few more sessions. I think I have got stuck in a bit of a rut and eat whenever I feel I should rather than when I want. Just need to freshen things up.
No worries… I’m dieting myself at the moment and I’ve fallen off the wagon a couple of times but it’s not a short road, it’s a long road, hence why I started end of March with July being my target and then to keep my weight the same, year round. I don’t want to be at 14-15%+ bf anymore. I want to be around 10% all the time.I’ve learnt a few tips and tricks. I have my vices, sure, but I keep them at bay as much as possible and it gets easier. It’s difficult because I’ve been eating 3,000-4,000 calories every day, probably more a few days a week for the last 6-8 months. Now I’m eating around 2,300 per day on average. Some days a little more, some days a little less.
Tbh I’m probably around 12-13% bf at the moment, so I only want to drop another 3-4% for the summer, but I don’t wanna rush it and sacrifice my strength and what muscle I do have. I think crash diets are bad for your body, your mindset, energy and create the yo-yo dieting effect. It needs to be done in a slow, controlled process. Sure, results might be slow but they will be there to stay.
There’s a lot of broscience out there on dieting when it really isn’t that difficult. There are not short cuts other than illegal drugs (the legal ones probably aren’t really worth it, might help a tinnnny bit). Meal timings, carbs before bed, meal frequencies etc etc are really not important.
The most important aspects IMO are training hard, counting your calories, counting your macro’s and not making a diet too strict – it shouldn’t be a chore because if it is, you will be more likely to fail in reaching your goals.
I don’t do cardio at all at the moment. The closest I get is high volume drop sets. 
I’m 91kgs and about 12/13% bodyfat.
I do split days, so Chest/tri, back/bi, shoulders, core + legs. I squat and bench press every week – I deadlift heavy about once a month or so.
Once the weather warms up I will be running twice a week to begin with and see how I feel (intervals, not distance). Cardio is important for health reasons, far less important for body composition.
I’m 91kgs and about 12/13% bodyfat.
I do split days, so Chest/tri, back/bi, shoulders, core + legs. I squat and bench press every week – I deadlift heavy about once a month or so.
Once the weather warms up I will be running twice a week to begin with and see how I feel (intervals, not distance). Cardio is important for health reasons, far less important for body composition.
Juanco20 said:
Are you quite short?
9 stone 12 and 15% body fat doesn't quite tie up in my head unless you are small?
9 stone 12 and 15% body fat doesn't quite tie up in my head unless you are small?
Bolebroke said:
5 foot 7...so yes !
Even with this answer, I'm scratching my head.I'm 5'6 and nearly 11 stone with lower BF.
I found the "easiest" way was to log everything I eat, make sure I got enough protein whilst keeping calories within a certain range. Eating little doesn't necessarily have things going the way you want due to hormones 'n' s
t. The body is great at surviving famines...As to breakfast, well, when I was eating fewer calories (1700-1900), I had a chicken drumstick for breakfast or nothing as I preferred eating later in the day. Breakfast might be the most important meal of the day... but they didn't say when you had to break the fast.
Nowadays, I'm trying to increase size without introducing fat so do eat more (2300-2900). Breakfast is just porridge with honey but I might eat chicken in some format afterwards.
For cardio, I did find HIIT worked very well for burning fat efficiently but this year I'm experimenting with a couple of sessions of tai chi and a couple of sessions of gentle cycling - testing the theory that excessive cardio leads to raised cortisol levels. Strength training involves one day of heavy compound, one day of gymnastics and one day of 10x10 (although I'm changing that to something less dull this weekend as I'm bored of it and am not sure I'm benefiting).
Edited by Hoofy on Wednesday 10th April 12:24
Ex-racing cyclist..was always light when riding about 9.5 to 10 stone. Bulked up to 12.5 stone in my 40s..fat and lazy ! I am quite pleased with current physique though...PT has done well...breakfast is almost eaten every day without thinking about it...perhaps time to forego this and just focus on lighter / more frequent snack type feeds. So many moving parts in terms of change of physique / more muscle / speeded up metabolism...and i hate the idea of experimenting and seeing what works..might mean you spend 6 months getting as good as you can ..then throw it all away by eating too many bananas for a week ! C'mon - tell me what I need to eat to get down to 10% BF and climb Mt Ventoux like Pantani whilst looking like Arnie!!!
Bolebroke said:
But you do all kindsa weird stuff ?!
I do because I like to experiment just from an academic viewpoint - somethings work, somethings are a waste of time. I consider my body to be my own personal laboratory. I don't mind getting fatter by dropping something to test something else out. For others, they'd get really depressed by it.But you just need to stay focused and do whatever it is consistently for a few months (which despite changing things about is what I have been doing as the body changes slowly).
If you need 2300 kcals to maintain (TDEE) and not exercise, then doing a 100 kcal burn is going to result in a mild weight loss. This might come about by lifting. Eat slightly more protein than you need and you will grow LBM. Over time, your LBM will increase, your TDEE will increase as your LBM increases; your protein requirements will increase, too, if you want to maintain. Continue to eat slightly higher protein and your body will grow in the way you desire. Or something like that.
It's a bit fiddly so depends how you want to play it. As someone said on MFP, weight lifting is like a magic pill - if I eat more than my TDEE, I grow muscle; if I eat under my TDEE, I burn fat. Just remember that it's a long, slow process.
Edited by Hoofy on Wednesday 10th April 12:47
Hoofy said:
You can do it by just lifting heavy and watching what you eat (which means eating an optimal amount for your training).
This. I am currently 74kg and between 7% and 8% body fat. I have to be very careful with cardio - too much of it and my strength goes through the floor.
My advice on breakfast is simple - don't
Bolebroke said:
Thanks, Pilch. So where do I get my energy from for a 41 minute KB snatch session tomorrow midday ? BCAA / protein shake 1 hour before..?
I worked up to my 2.7xBW deadlift 1RM last year training exclusively after a 16 hour fast with 10g BCAAs.... As long as you aren't doing loads of glycogen depletion endurance workouts the night before, fasted training feels great from an energy point of viewGassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff