Losing Weight [PICS NOW]

[Craddock]

Hey, i want to lose my belly before my holidays in the summer.

I'm 19 years old, weigh about 10½ - 11 stone. About 5ft 10-11.

Basically, I'm starting to get a belly on me. I do ab workouts every night, have been for the past 2-3 weeks. The top of my abs you can see, but the bottom is quite fat. I've read up a bit about it, the way to lose it is a healthy diet and cardio. I've started to run 30 minutes, 3 nights a week.

A healthy diet. Not really sure where to start, I work from home, get up about 10 o'clock, don't eat till 3, eat dinner at 7, then have a snack at 1ish, bed at 3. I drink a fair few teas a day with 2 sugars and green milk. If I get munchies, I normally have a bag of crisps or chocolate bar. Obviously, I've to stop eating those. What do I replace them with though? I drink usually once a week aswell and usually 1 takeaway a week.

What do I do from here?

Cheers for any help.

[Ryanp]

A belly wont just shift overnight, it will take quite a while to shift the fat from the abs region ive found with alot of people.

slow process of just doing the correct cardio and having a low fat content in the diet.

When you drink once a week is that a big drinking session as a large session will make things alot harder to shit weight in the gut region.

[Craddock]

I'd say I drink quite a lot every fortnight. I can easily cut that out though. That's where it came from along with the bacon and fatty crap. But ive stopped eating that crap now. What would you replace crisps with? Mum said nuts, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, that sort of stuff. You think 3 x 30 mins run and 6 x 30 mins abs work, is enough? Cheers
for your reply Ryan.

[Ryanp]

3x30 is plenty to start, you can allways drop in a 15min fast walk each day aswell.

Fruit can be a great replacement, plus low fat cereal bars etc..

[Saxo_Steveo]

Try fruit low fat bars or scrambled eggs etc for snacks and try brown bread nt white etc etc healthier options of everything and cv and work out seems fine

[Craddock]

Cheers guys,

Yeah, i normally have scrambled egg, pasta for snacks and that.

Edit: Also, going to the pub tonight to watch the game. What should I drink instead of a pint?

I'll keep upto date what I eat drink today.

10:15am - First tea of the day.
11:49am - Tea no. 2
12:46pm - 2 Oatabix, half a spoon of sugar, little milk.
13:55pm - Pint of water
14:01pm - banana
15:30pm - pint of water
15:36pm - 1 slice of jam on toast (hovis best of both bread) very little butter.
17:19pm - Tea number 3
18:11pm - Dinner. Rice, Pork, spring roll, glass of water.
22:38pm - 4th Tea

[chris_ph2]

eat as soon as you get up to kick start your metabolism. brown toast with low fat spread, porridge, something like that. i tend to have weetabix with a small amount of semi milk on

use sweetener instead of sugar

eat 5/6 small meals a day (every 2-3 hours). consisting of things like lean meat, fish, fruit, veg. try to eat a piece of fruit after every meal and/or drink a glass of fresh juice (not from concentrate). so you hit your 5 fruit and veg a day, every day. i tend to have chicken or beef sandwiches on brown seed bread with low fat spread

drink plenty of water, approx 1-2 litres a day

basically just eat low fat and low carbs, especially in the evening. particularly watch your saturated fat intake. needs to be as low as possible. don't snack between meals. cut out as much sweets, choc, takeaway, beer etc as you can. the stricter you are the quicker your results will be!

[Craddock]

Cheers Chris, great post.

What should I have now then? We've got some hovis best of both bread and some oatibix.

Instead of "snacks" I'll have a bit of fruit then. (Any fruit?) Apples, bananas, pears, grapes, oranges. Also, nuts, sunflower seeds, dried fruit. What about those snack bars? I'll get some stuff from asda later.

Might have a oatabix with a small bit of milk aswell. No sugar.

What should I have to drink at the pub then, just a bottle of water?

EDIT: I had 2 oatabix, that's alright ain't it? lol.

[chris_ph2]

haha yeah i'd have oatibix for first meal plus a glass of water and a cup of tea with sweetener. near enough exactly what i eat for breakfast each day!

yeah any fruit. some are higher in sugar than others but it's good to have a mix and they're all good for you. i eat mostly apples plus the odd pear or banana

i also have 2/3 veg with evening meal. mostly green veg - broccoli, green beans, peas, spinach. but again they're all really good for you so quite often have carrots, parsnips etc aswell

the snack bars are ok but they will probably have fat and sugar in. probably not a lot though but i wouldn't eat more than one or two a day at the most

nuts are good for you but contain a lot of fat. they are good fats/amino acids though so it's good to have a small amount as part of your overall intake. maybe a small handfull a week if you're keen on them. i never really bother though, as they also contain quite a lot of saturated fat aswell

because of my work and routine i eat at 8am, 10.30, 1, 3.30, 6, gym, protein shake, then usually just some fruit before bed. weetabix for first meal, lean meat sandwiches on brown bread for all the rest, bar evening meal when i'll have meat again (or fish) with 2/3 veg and maybe a small amount of carbs eg. potatoes

i used to buy snack bars but now find i never feel the urge to snack between these meals. plus your body gets used to these meal times and intake amounts and you find yourself being hungry at just the right time each day. can literally tell what time it is by how hungry i'm starting to feel lol

i find that snacking between meals confuses my stomach a bit. would rather keep that 2.5 hour clear gap between. give my stomach time to digest a meal completely and settle before the cycle starts again. plus if i ate between these frequent meals i'd literally be eating constantly, overloading my system and be on the toilet all the time! lol

as for drink i've heard vodka and diet coke is good if you must have alcohol. but it is a bit of a tarts drink and sod being sober. i just drink beer. once a week at the most though but i do drink a lot, which is my only downfall. but would rather nail the diet 24/7, gym 5 nites mon-fri then feel like i've deserved it. weekend off keeps me sane

[Craddock]

Alright cool, about to have lunch.

How's Jam on toast. little bit of butter. Best of both bread.

[Bickerton]

I get up for work at 5am and can't really face food at that time, usually eat at about 9:30 at work.
Is it worth trying to cram a piece of toast down me before i leave the house or would it not make that much difference?

[chris_ph2]

yeah sounds ok. jam can be high in sugar though. so try and go with the healthy stuff

plus it's near enough 100% carbs meal. i like to get some goodness in there aswell. tinned salmon is one of my favourites. not everyone likes it though. or even better there's tuna

Originally Posted by Bickerton

I get up for work at 5am and can't really face food at that time, usually eat at about 9:30 at work.
Is it worth trying to cram a piece of toast down me before i leave the house or would it not make that much difference?

i would yeah. even just a piece of fruit like a banana for some slow release energy. and if you really really can't face food just have a glass of juice

not just for the metabolism side of things but also for energy. as you won't have eaten anything for ages!

i get at least 8 hours sleep each nite and i know if i didn't eat for 8 hours during the way i'd feel like my stomach was eating itself!

little and often is the key

[Bickerton]

I lost loadsa weight (9 stone in a year) in the past but as i lost it so fast i put it back on as fast as i lost it, quit smoking a year ago aswell which didn't help me either.

I just need ways to speed up my metabolism as i don't eat that badly, i do wish i liked fish tho as is a good food stuff

[chris_ph2]

9 stone in a year that's mad!

yeah stopping smoking won't have helped keeping the weight off. it is bad for you though (so i've heard) plus appetite suppression is not a good way to lose weight! if you could afford to then it would be more effective for weight loss to eat purely fruit/veg for every meal than not to eat at all. you'd look and feel a damn sight healthier too

i just encouraged my metabolism to speed up to where it is now. your body will naturally adjust to meal frequency and meal size. started off having the standard 3 meals a day, say 5 hours apart. then started having a piece of fruit between each of these meals. then replaced those pieces of fruit with protein flapjacks. then replaced them with lean meat sandwiches and a piece of fruit (i am currently building muscle at the minute though which is why i'm taking in protein at every opportunity). do that though and you'll soon be on 5/6 small meals, quick metabolism, looking and feeling great

[bullit]

what chris said. you need small meals frequently for your metab. if you dont eat much, your body holds on to it and stores it as it doesnt know when your next meal is gonna be.

[Craddock]

thinking about having scrambled egg (just egg white), on slice of brown bed for a snack?

[chris_ph2]

sounds good yeah. low fat but still quite filling so you're not hungry 20mins later

as for water i've got a volvic 1 litre sports bottle which i fill up every morning. perfect size so it's not a pain in the arse to keep with you, you don't need to keep refilling it all the time like a glass, plus even if you only drink one in a day it's still sufficient

[Craddock]

is it better to eat in small amounts or like... not eat hardly anything?

[Saxo_Steveo]

Just eat small snacks meals like a tuna snadwich or something like that in between main meals little and often

[chris_ph2]

yeah just eat frequently and at regular intervals, consuming small meals consisting of mainly fruit/veg plus low fat lean meat like grilled chicken, or fish

carbs and fats are essential. just don't have much of them

my diet goes off track a bit on my days off, with having late nites and lie ins. which means my meal times and intake as affected aswell. hunger tends to vary throughout the day depending what i'm doing, so i just eat accordingly

like yesterday i had cereal, gap, sandwich, gap, sandwich, gap, wasn't that hungry before gym but had been 2.5hours since last meal so just had a can of pear halves in juice, then gym, then was a bit late to start cooking after gym so just had a can of tuna and an apple before bed