Thanks for the info all of you, will definently read up again later and take note of the best way. I really want to do this properly but as a life change no just a small time change. P.S I thought lifting weights makes you eat more food, or should i be eating more protein.
Yeah, weights will make you hungrier, just like cardio will. Whether or not you need more protein depends on how much you're currently eating and how much you need. Obviously we can't advise for your personal needs other than to give you some good rules of thumb. If you post up your average diet for a day we could advise better.
When I get into training mode which will begin after this friday. minimum of 2 litres of water which I drink every day (whether I train or not i do this as standard) Morning, cup of tea followed by weetobix with semi skimmed milk. Mid-morning snack - bannana or apple Afternoon Lunch = sandwich, either chicken salad or tuna mayonaise sandwich on brown bread or just a standard chicken and mixed salad. Or sometimes I have cerals again weetabix, special K, coco pops or crunchy nut cornflakes with semi skimmed milk. afternoon snack - apple, bannana, orange, some sort of fruit or a yoghurt (id say 4 out of 7 days I have an afternoon snack) Evening Meal - either a plate of pasta or salad with fish or chicken or meat cup of tea and a green tea later on before I go to sleep. My biggest downfall is at night, i tend to snack but have managed to get rid of the habit! which is a good thing.
assuming: 2 Weetabix (120Kcal) 150ml semi skimmed milk (72Kcal) 1 banana (121Kcal) Tuna Mayo Sandwich (287Kcal) 1 apple (65Kcal) 100g Wholewheat pasta (316Kcal) 1 chicken breast ~4oz (130Kcal) you're coming in at roughly 1200Kcal/day, which isn't enough for someone of your size. Of course that's probably an ideal day, but still.
Thats my meal if I do cardio, I know I eat more when I do weights but do not know how much more to be honest. Ive never really taken notice.
Yup. I started lifting weights with the intention of putting on some weight, so people would shut up about how 'fragile' and 'delicate' I was. I lost 5kg. I was waaaayyy ****ed off. I like looking harsh and wiry a la Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil 2, though.
Cheers for doing the maths. And I'd agree it's not enough food. There's a reasonable chance your body will go into "starvation" mode. i.e. your metabolism will slow to compensate for the low calorie intake. If this is a lot less than what you're currently eating then you'll lose weight for a while, probably quite quickly, then you'll plateau. You'll also likely find it hard to stick to as I'm seeing a fair amount of easily-digested carbs in there. Without going into the tedious biochemistry, this will make you more hungry and make it harder to stick to the diet. This will also more likely set you up for rebound weight gain after coming off the diet. I know this is often a controversial point, but if I were in your position I'd be looking at taking in more calories (11cals per lb of bodyweight is a good rule of thumb for a starting point - this would put a 16 stone guy at about 2400-2500 cals a day) and replacing the carbs with healthy fats and proteins. Contrary to what we're told, meat, fish, cheese and eggs aren't less healthy than processed cereals, but that's a whole separate debate. I'd agree with Moi on drinking proper milk. And it wouldn't hurt to fling a few servings of veggies in there - maybe with the evening meal.
This is the exact problem i get once I stop training (about 2 weeks later), my body just wants to take everything and anything... I could never understand this.
First of all, let me apologise for describing lifting heavy as 'counter- productive.' This was a bit of an exaggeration on my part, and in no way am I trying to de-value the use of heavy weights. As for your point about evidence- there has been more than enough written in 'Men Health,' 'Muscle and Fitness' and other publications to support what I was saying. Whilst I agree that lifting heavy is good for weight loss, on the basis of not only what I have read, but from what I myself have been through, I would still say that shorter rest periods (which do indeed make the weight sessions abit more cardio orientated) speed the process along. This is what makes circuit training so popular. But Hey, not everyone works the same, and I respect that.
Not really, the only benefit produced by shorter rest periods is an increase in lactic acid. As far as negatives go, there's stress on the CNS, increased use of the cardiovascular system instead of overloading muscle tissue, lower weights and less total work done. It feels like a more intense workout because you're exhausting your cardiovascular system but ultimately it's less effective as your muscles themselves are not being taxed fully. This is why circuit training is popular, because it feels like it works. Just because circuit training is popular it doesn't make it better. On a side note a lot of personal trainers love to push this and the 'workout in 45 minutes' myth because it means they can get more clients through the doors a day. People are happy going to the gym for an hour rather than three and often don't want to pay this much anyway. If you're training on your own then more rest means more recovery and more effort and total work can be completed in a session.
You get good at what you train. I'm not saying don't do circuit training or interval training. In fact, in my previous post I advocated interval sprints, IIRC. If you're going to spend time lifting heavy weights and putting them down again, then IMO you should aim for the best benefit such an activity can afford; to whit, great improvement in strength. To really get that benefit, you need to do fewer sets, with fewer reps, at heavier weights, incorporating longer rest periods. Train with shorter rest periods and higher reps in each set, and your endurance will improve, sure, but your strength, not so much. I only read Men's Health and Muscle and Fitness for the pictures.
I think i will try this, i wouldnt say heavy, but Id start off light for a week and then crank it up and see the heavier weight - so lets say I do 3 sets of 20 reps, a week later I will crank it up so I can do 3 sets of 15 but feeling it a bit more if that makes sense. Never really read Mens Health or Muscle and Fitness for the pics, they got the good images but it just seems to look cheesy... for the males that want to give the cheesy effect lol... but hey, i think there good books - its been a while since I read them. :Angel:
I was lying about Men's Health and Muscle and Fitness. My ex used to read them. I never had any interest in them. I was busy reading Flex. :weightlifter:
