How to proceed with my nutrition and exercise plans to get better results?

Question

I have been intense weight-lifting for 6-7 years and I have stopped doing so for almost a year.

I am 32yrs old, 1.86m tall and I weight (now)88kgr. I have never been fat or slim and I can say that I am I have a bit better than the average man body. Since I ended my gym subscription (lack of money..) I have been doing other forms of exercise: running, doing home stuff (pushups-situps-abs etc.), cycling and climbing. I have been also having healthy eating habits, trying always to go with the 30-50-20 rule and eat always home, not fried foods etc.

I also got a job and I am working too many hours on a chair. I want to stay fit and healthy as more as I can for the rest of my life, but it seems that some things have come to a wall and I need some help.

Last year I did a low-carb diet for 4 months which did great results to me but nothing extreme. I decided to begin again just about 1 month ago and so far I have lost 4kgr (I was 92kgr) which is a nice achievement but not close to what I want. I want to build a six-pack for the first time of my life and that's a goal. I followed a Ketogenic diet instructions and eating only rich in protein foods and clean fat except the "binge day" which is on Sunday and I fall on carbs!

My exercise routine is:

• Running at least 3 times a week for ~4.5km/3miles with a heart rate monitor to be sure that I am in a fat burning zone
• Cycle for ~40km/3.30' once a week on the high carb day
• Walk and live on a diy kind of way of doing things
• Do a series of 15*4 pushups on hand grips, 15*4 situps, 30*5 ab crunches every other day from running

My eating routine is:

• half lemon in a glass of water, a bowl of yoghurt with 4 prunes in the morning
• a can of tuna or 12 almonds in three hours
• a small amount of lentiles and chicken or pork and lettuce, spinach and beef etc.
• an omelette with two eggs some cheese, half tomato and two slices of pork or yoghurt as in the morning
• dinner like the lunch one

I am trying to understand what can I improve to lose more fat and get six-packed. I am starting to feel like my metabolism is stuck in the Keto and I think to change the nutrition plan to cycle carb (low-med-high-low-med-high-low).

Answer 1

1. You're not really doing any type of strength training. The pushups, situps, and crunches are certainly better than nothing but they are a far cry from an effective strength training plan. If you want to stick with body weight activities you can, and there are some great books ( http://amzn.to/1v01hXz ) that you can check out to get you on the right path. I'd also spring ~$40 for a pair of gymnastic rings. That will allow you to do dips, pullups, rows, levers, l-sits, butterflies, muscle ups, roll outs, and probably a dozen other high quality exercises.
2. Your breakfast should be more substantial. I don't know how big that bowl is you're eating, but it sounds like you're getting a couple of hundred calories. I'd bump that up to maybe 600. Use a site like dailyburn.com or myfitnesspal.com to track your calories for a week and get some insight into your macros.
3. The lentils/chicken/pork/spinach/beef sounds good, but you really need to have an overall view into your macro nutrients. Aim for (roughly) 1g of protein per 1kg of bodyweight. Highly active training people will double that, but at minimum go for 1g to 1kg.
4. Strength training will increase your basal metabolic rate, but you honestly might be in starvation mode considering your limited calories. Monitor everything you eat for a week, get a benchmark of what you're eating, and go from there. Find some calculators online that can give you some guidance as to how many calories and how much protein/fat/carbs you should ingest daily. This is a good calculator: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/