How to improve my weight loss efforts?

Question

Thanks for taking the time to read.

I have joined my local gym and am currently on a mission to lose weight whilst also building core strength and fitness.

I like bodyweight exercises, free weights, boxing and classes such as spin and circuits.

Things I do not enjoy so much are the treadmill, rowing machines and most cardio. I have given them all a good effort, but I find them tedious and boring so decided to find other means of working out in order maintain my interest by doing things I enjoy.

My daily diet is vastly improved, a typical day used to be:

Breakfast: Nothing or coco pops.
Lunch: Can of Coca Cola, bag of crisps and meal out with colleagues or high fat prepackaged sandwich. 
Dinner: Anything from Chips with burgers to pizza.

An typical example of my current diet after my lifestyle changes is:

Breakfast: Cornflakes, or a breakfast pot with red berries, fat free yogurt and granola
Lunch: Water and soup or fresh salad chicken and hummus wrap made fresh.
Dinner: Stir fry or chicken and veg and potatoes

Now I admit this is a relatively new change, only a couple of months, but I already feel great for it, and I'm told I look better.

I am 5 feet 8 inches tall. I used to weight 14st 4lbs and I now weight 13st 11lbs, so only slight progress but its progress. My target is to reach 13st.

My current workout is typically:

Monday: 
Bodyweight squats – 8-10 reps
Push-ups (or knee-push ups) – 5-8 reps
Plank – hold for 15 seconds
Jumping Jacks – 15 reps
Bodyweight Reverse Lunges – 6 reps per leg
Lying Hip Raise (double or single leg) – 10 reps

I do 2 x the above, then I hit the heavy boxing bag for two 1 minute rounds then and another 2 sets of the above

Wednesday: Circuits class

Friday: Same as Monday.

One thing I was contemplating is taking multi vitamins and incorporating a protein shake after every workout. How can I improve this/add to/take away from all of the above to maximise my weight loss efforts whilst still enjoying myself? Plus and other tips greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Looks prety decent, but I'm worried about the granola. It depends greatly on the brand, but granola can have an extremely high amount of sugar in it. If you want to build core strength, make sure you don't under eat. Make sure to get sufficient protein (approximately your fat free body weight in kg times 2.5 in grams), and most of your remaining callories from fat. Sugar should be limited to (pre)workout, and other carbs are OK as long as you take small portions. I would suggest going for full fat yoghurt with nuts rather than low fat yoghurt with granola. For dinner, it looks good, don't overdo the taters, use sufficient healthy oil while cooking (peanut oil or olive oil) and stack up on the chicken.

Answer 2

An typical example of my current diet after my lifestyle changes is:

Breakfast: Cornflakes, or a breakfast pot with red berries, fat free yoghurt and granola

Lunch: Water and soup or fresh salad chicken and humous wrap made fresh.

Dinner: Stir fry or chicken and veg and potatoes

Trade out the processed food for more whole food. Lower calorie, higher nutrition

• Cornflakes, yoghurt, granola - replace with banana/other fruit, nuts - or a green smoothie
• Turn your wrap into a salad, skipping the wrap
• Dinner looks great eat several colors of vegetables.

You can eat as much raw vegetable and fruit as you want. Variety is key.

If greatly increasing raw vegetable volume, take a probiotic with your food to help digestion.

Answer 3

Studies have consistently shown that when it comes to a nutrition plan (Note: I do not say diet. Diet implies a close ended, limited lifespan process), calorie restriction is king when it comes to weight loss. Don't buy into paleo, atkins, .

Track all the food you eat for three days. Even if you eat a spoonful of peanut butter, write it down. Weigh and measure your food so you know you are eating specific portion sizes. (For example, I used to think that my 2 cups of morning cereal was actually 1 cup). Once you know your daily calorie intake, then you can compare it to your daily basic and activity level needs, and see where you need to either increase exercise or decrease intake.

Spend the $10 (US dollars) or so and run your diet through an analysis calculator, that will give you how much protein, fat, and micronutrients (Vitamins, minerals, etc) you are consuming. This will show you where your diet has weak points.

Once you have all that information, take one day a week, plan all your meals and shop for them. Allow yourself some treats. I usually go on the 80/20 (ish) rule, that if 80% of what I eat is good and healthy, I'm ok with 20% being not so healthy.

Answer 4

One thing that I would like to add is not depending on only one source of protein , as over time your body will form allergies to it, not like you will start having stomach pain or anything like that , but you won't be getting the full benefit of it . From the diet you mentioned if seems to constitute only of chicken as protein source , so would advice to add fish or beef to your diet.
Another advice would be not to go for protein powders so early in your transformation. Do so only if you think that it is absolute necessary and you are not getting enough of protein from actual food.
Thirdly as your goal is to loose fat , you can supplement caffeine before workout . Most of the fat burners and pre-workouts have caffeine . Caffeine increases fat oxidation, and will also help with alertness in the gym.

Word of caution : caffeine is very potent , and overdosing can cause serious problems, even death.

If you are in US then there is this company called BulkSupplements which manufacture good quality supplements and have heard a lot about their caffeine supplement. 250 mg of caffeine is enough for one workout , and can be increased if you are caffeine tolerant due to consuming caffeine through coffee.

Answer 5

I find your diet and workout are fine. However keep in mind that body weight can be contributed by body fat, water in your body and muscles. I suggest you to focus not just on losing weight but also burning fat.

Back to your question. I suggest you to switch your workouts and diet every 2 or 4 weeks. If you're doing the same workouts or having the same diet your body will hit into plateau.

I'm not sure about your exact body figure but I assume you're an endomorph based on your self description. As an endomorph it is best that you include cardio in every workout. It's boring but it helps.

Also if you haven not started doing it. Knowing your BMR, DCR and calorie counting is definitely helpful too.

Answer 6

If you're eating plenty of vegetables then a multi-vitamin is a waste of money in general, especially with your level of activity. You will just end up passing them out in your urine, it will be bright yellow though so that is a noticeable effect.

In terms of protein shakes, I used to take them a lot in my early training career but have since found that whole foods are all around a much better alternative, you will be better sated and have generally better results getting your proteins from meat and dairy. I also have seen no greater or lesser effect from ingesting protein directly after training.

It isn't actually known why whole foods have a much greater effect on our bodies but research is ongoing, more and more information is available in the form of facts backed up by scientific study rather than dietary dogma that someone thought up in the 70's.

Depending on your schedule if you're looking for a sustainable lifestyle change that would result in a better weight loss performance then I would suggest skipping breakfast and eating lunch and dinner only, with the larger meal being directly after your gym sessions (but still ingesting the same amount of calories daily).

I base my advice on years of trial and error with my own training and diet as well as extensive research done on scientific studies.

If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to answer any of them, the subject is so vast that I would be here for hours otherwise.