Diet questions

[NickB]

Hey guys, I was hoping for some advice.

Here's my situation. I weighed 360 lbs in December of 2009. I've dropped 70 lbs in the meantime, just with some portion control, and cutting out caloried drinks. At this point I've plateaued, no more weight loss.

I have very bad knees, from a high school football injury. I can't run, but can bike. I need to know what you guys would suggest as a step up in diet, and what I should do as far as workout.

I've been stretching, trying to get myself able to use rubberguard also.

Any help you guys could give would be amazing.

[James III]

Hi Nick congratulations on losing the 70lbs! Could you give us a few more details. How much do you want to lose in total and what is your height etc?

When you say you can Bike do you mean you have a Gym Bike or a real bike? If you have a Gym bike at home I would highly recommend HIIT (High intensity interval training) Wikipedia has a page about it although it has been changed and reduced since I last checked it and the Bike section is now gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-in...erval_training


Basically off the top of my head there was study that showed that 60 mins of Bike HIIT ( 20 mins 3 times a week) produced the same fat burning results as almost 4 hours of aerobic level biking a week. Basically because the short bursts from HIIT raise the metabolic rate so your burning losts of calories at rest for almost 24 hours afterwards. So you get better results for doing less work!!

For example on a Gym bike you could cycle as fast as you can for 1 minute then pedal at a comfortible pace for 1 minute. Thats one cycle. Repeat this 9 more times and this will add up to 20 mins total. Do this 3 times a week. Years ago when I was carrying abit of extra weight round my belly I found HIIT far more effective for getting rid of body fat then traditional boring cardio stuff like an hour on the treadmill etc.

Regarding diet it would depend on how much you want to lose to be honest. I would recommend starting out by cutting out soft drinks, crisps and chocolate and replacing them with Fruit, nuts and healthy smoothies. Remember NEVER starve yourself. If you don't eat the body will hold on to fat for longer as it's unsure when you will eat again. Eating also stimulates the metabolism. Small meals thoughout the day are good for the metabolism rather then just 3 giants portions a day. Thats why healthy snacking is good for weight loss. For something more comphrehensive I would recommend buying a food book from Amazon.

[RichardC]

Small changes in your diet are ideal, because they are more realistic in terms of being able to implement those changes consistently over time...

With some of my clients, depending on their level of physical activity, I'll have them simply count carbs throughout the day. For example, a 30-year-old woman that I train wants to lose a little bit of fat around her stomach, but has an extremely hard time sticking with a diet. So she downloaded a carb counting app on her iPhone, and all she has to do now is eat 80-100g of carbs a day, and the app does most of the thinking for her. It's a change that she can stick to her entire life, and is extremely non-invasive.

From my experience, carb control is a big, big factor weight loss. There's a lot of controversy there, but the medical research pretty unequivocally shows that carb-moderated diets keep the body lean and drastically reduce heart disease factors. I'm not talking about a full ketogenic diet, just moderation.

There are also some interesting theories on intermittent fasting, which you can read about on a site called Lean Gains. A lot of European fitness competitors use this method, and it seems to work, but it definitely flies in the face of a lot of "common sense" diet theory. I did intermittent fasting for about 6 months as a personal experiment, and even competed in 3 grappling tournaments while fasted. Got 2nd place in one, and 4th in another, so energy was not a problem.

[Eric Schuettenberg]

Check out the paleo diet

[NickB]

Hi Nick congratulations on losing the 70lbs! Could you give us a few more details. How much do you want to lose in total and what is your height etc?

When you say you can Bike do you mean you have a Gym Bike or a real bike? If you have a Gym bike at home I would highly recommend HIIT (High intensity interval training) Wikipedia has a page about it although it has been changed and reduced since I last checked it and the Bike section is now gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-in...erval_training


Basically off the top of my head there was study that showed that 60 mins of Bike HIIT ( 20 mins 3 times a week) produced the same fat burning results as almost 4 hours of aerobic level biking a week. Basically because the short bursts from HIIT raise the metabolic rate so your burning losts of calories at rest for almost 24 hours afterwards. So you get better results for doing less work!!

For example on a Gym bike you could cycle as fast as you can for 1 minute then pedal at a comfortible pace for 1 minute. Thats one cycle. Repeat this 9 more times and this will add up to 20 mins total. Do this 3 times a week. Years ago when I was carrying abit of extra weight round my belly I found HIIT far more effective for getting rid of body fat then traditional boring cardio stuff like an hour on the treadmill etc.

Regarding diet it would depend on how much you want to lose to be honest. I would recommend starting out by cutting out soft drinks, crisps and chocolate and replacing them with Fruit, nuts and healthy smoothies. Remember NEVER starve yourself. If you don't eat the body will hold on to fat for longer as it's unsure when you will eat again. Eating also stimulates the metabolism. Small meals thoughout the day are good for the metabolism rather then just 3 giants portions a day. Thats why healthy snacking is good for weight loss. For something more comphrehensive I would recommend buying a food book from Amazon.

I'm 5'10, and hope to lose at this point another 50-60lbs. Thanks for the advice on HIIT, will definitely check it out.

Small changes in your diet are ideal, because they are more realistic in terms of being able to implement those changes consistently over time...

With some of my clients, depending on their level of physical activity, I'll have them simply count carbs throughout the day. For example, a 30-year-old woman that I train wants to lose a little bit of fat around her stomach, but has an extremely hard time sticking with a diet. So she downloaded a carb counting app on her iPhone, and all she has to do now is eat 80-100g of carbs a day, and the app does most of the thinking for her. It's a change that she can stick to her entire life, and is extremely non-invasive.

From my experience, carb control is a big, big factor weight loss. There's a lot of controversy there, but the medical research pretty unequivocally shows that carb-moderated diets keep the body lean and drastically reduce heart disease factors. I'm not talking about a full ketogenic diet, just moderation.

There are also some interesting theories on intermittent fasting, which you can read about on a site called Lean Gains. A lot of European fitness competitors use this method, and it seems to work, but it definitely flies in the face of a lot of "common sense" diet theory. I did intermittent fasting for about 6 months as a personal experiment, and even competed in 3 grappling tournaments while fasted. Got 2nd place in one, and 4th in another, so energy was not a problem.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna check out what I can do about carbs, because they are my weakness.

Check out the paleo diet

Will do.

Thanks for the replies guys.

[AJ Camacho]

From my experience, carb control is a big, big factor weight loss. There's a lot of controversy there, but the medical research pretty unequivocally shows that carb-moderated diets keep the body lean and drastically reduce heart disease factors. I'm not talking about a full ketogenic diet, just moderation.

Carb moderation is definitely how I control my weight. That alone drastically changes whether or not I am losing or gaining weight. I'm sure there are other diet criteria that would contribute to weight management but carb moderation alone, for me, does the trick.

[Greg Allum]

Hey there Nick. I started out pretty much in the same boat as you. Started at right around 300 and am down to 265-270 now. Both of my knees have been done so know how that goes also. One thing I would like to point out is don't always go by the scale. When you start changing fat out for muscle, weight loss will slow down as muscle is heaveir. If there is somewhere that you can get you BMI checked I would take a gander at that. Myself I have upped the protien and lowered my carb intake. Every once in a while I start getting sweets cravings, which is something because I have about zero sweet tooth. But what I did was when I get them I do have some low fat, lower carb sweets around to help take the craving off. Rice crispy treats are good if you by the right ones and there is a cholocate garonola(sp?) bar that is low fat and carbs.

[NickB]

Hey there Nick. I started out pretty much in the same boat as you. Started at right around 300 and am down to 265-270 now. Both of my knees have been done so know how that goes also. One thing I would like to point out is don't always go by the scale. When you start changing fat out for muscle, weight loss will slow down as muscle is heaveir. If there is somewhere that you can get you BMI checked I would take a gander at that. Myself I have upped the protien and lowered my carb intake. Every once in a while I start getting sweets cravings, which is something because I have about zero sweet tooth. But what I did was when I get them I do have some low fat, lower carb sweets around to help take the craving off. Rice crispy treats are good if you by the right ones and there is a cholocate garonola(sp?) bar that is low fat and carbs.

Thanks for the advice on carbs. I get ravenous sweets cravings, and have been trying some healthier stuff. My BMI when last checked was morbidly obese, I believe it was in the high 30s.

One major thing I'm gonna try and due is cut out prepackaged food. I have a two year old and a wife that I cook for besides myself, so sometimes some Kraft Mac and cheese is the easiest thing to grab, but if I make it myself, I know it will be healthier.

[Enrique "Kiko"]

check out http://bodyforlife.com/ and http://www.transformation.com/pages/public/welcome

Complete guidelines for any body type and fitness/weight goal.

[Isaiah Mendoza]

broccoli everyday will stimulate natural test production and block estrogen. This will make it easier for your body to retain/build muscle and cut fat. Make sure you cook it because it activates the most important ingredients when it's cooked. Complex carbs are the best slow burning energy sources. Brown rice and oatmeal (honey on oatmeal is a healthy way to replace lost glucose after a workout) are extremely low in fat and are complex carb sources. Simple carbs should be taken from natural sources (fruit) if you want to lose weight.

I also recommend making a list of foods that help peak your testosterone naturally. This will make your body a natural fatburning/musclebuilding machine. These include: avocados, almonds, oysters, celery, eggs, banannas, asparagus, figs, radishes, red cabbage.

Taking fish oil everyday will help your body manage fat better

A combination of HIIT training and LSD (on seperate days) will help you not only become a cardio machine, but also cut weight. The reason sprinters are so ripped is because they are constantly doing HIIT training, which cuts fat and drives up test production which causes natural muscle growth and fat reduction.

Make sure not to overtrain, try not to do HIIT more than 2-3 times a week unless you feel you can handle it. On the days you do not do HIIT do LSD and make sure to always take at least 1 day of complete rest a week although I recommend 2 for complete recovery.