The get fit, stay fit thread

[mjw]

Down to 11 stone 11, fasting, 2 games of fives a week and weights/planks etc on the other 4 days, Sunday’s off. 26 pounds down in 4 month. Away to try and get down to about 11ish then start upping my weights and eating more.
 
Have done a bit of research into how much I’ll need to eat to build muscle and it seems like it’s gonna be a total pain in the arse. 2600-3000 calories a day seems like an awful lot if you’re eating healthily.
 
 

If you're a man eating less than that then you might not be eating that healthy.
Go against the fad diets and up your carb intake if you are wanting to gain muscle.

[Gaz]

1 minute ago, mjw said:

If you're a man eating less than that then you might not be eating that healthy.
Go against the fad diets and up your carb intake if you are wanting to gain muscle.

Best to ignore this altogether.

[dorlomin]

7 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Have done a bit of research into how much I’ll need to eat to build muscle and it seems like it’s gonna be a total pain in the arse. 2600-3000 calories a day seems like an awful lot if you’re eating healthily.

It does seem like a lot. At 75kgs your base metabolic rate will be about 1800 kcal a day. You can get an estimate for it here

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bmr_calculator.htm

Base Metabolic Rate or BMR is you what would need to eat roughly that to lie still and maintain you weight. 

The rest of your calories will be your activity, probably about 300kcal for daily activity then your exercise which really does not sound like 700kcal a day on average. 

BMR + calroies burned in exercise and daily activity - calories consumed (including beer) = calorie surplus\deficit.

If you have a calorie deficit your body will need to either burn fat or muscle to keep going, if you have a calorie surplus it will add fat (and a little bit of muscle). 

You can maintain a weight and add muscle, the body will use fat for energy while building muscle until you are pretty lean( 12% ish body fat and below), then you would need to "bulk and cut", or eat to gain weight then cut the eating to lose the fat. You can usually also lose weight and gain muscle if you are above 15% ish body fat, rule of thumb if you cant see defined abs, you can likely add muscle and lose fat as long as its not more than 1kg a week. 

 

If you are losing about 0.5kg a week (26 pounds is 11kgs, 4 months is 18 weeks so about 0.6kgs a week) that would be a calorie deficit of just over 3500kcal a week. That is roughly all you would need to add to your diet to stabilise your weight, about 500 extra kcal a day (roughly). The amount you lose per week will likely decrease as you lose weight and come closer to the BMR + calories burned. From there its just a matter of making sure you get a reasonable amount of protein, it does not matter how much carbs and fat you eat, your body cannot turn that into muscle and organ tissue. Its only protein that does that. So trying to eat more protein such a lean meat, eggs, dairy especially zero fat Greek Yogurt, oats, lentils and fish. If you are looking to gain muscle you should be looking at between about 1g and 2.2g of protein per kg of body weight. If you are already eating healthy then a protein shake will likely be useful. 

 

Apologies if this is too much nerdiness. 

[Gaz]

2 minutes ago, dorlomin said:

It does seem like a lot. At 75kgs your base metabolic rate will be about 1800 kcal a day. You can get an estimate for it here

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bmr_calculator.htm

Base Metabolic Rate or BMR is you what would need to eat roughly that to lie still and maintain you weight. 

The rest of your calories will be your activity, probably about 300kcal for daily activity then your exercise which really does not sound like 700kcal a day on average. 

I dunno like, two games of fives, four days of lifting and just one day off? That could easily be about 2,600 just TDEE, so to do as clean a bulk as possible about 3,000 sounds about right.

[LondonHMFC]

I am 6ft1 and up until I was 24/25 I was rarely ever over 12 stone. I used to cycle in and out of work each day which came to about 80 miles a week, nothing crazy, but it certainly seemed to keep the weight off. 

Anyway, since working in and around London on a constant basis, I saw my weight shoot up. I barely did any exercise and over a four year period managed to put on six stone. 

I weighed in at just over 18 stone in May, and felt like an absolute mess so joined the local gym. Managed to shed two stone through cardio, I'm not fussed about muscle building, just want to get down to about 13/14 stone. 

However with a holiday, and a few weddings over the past month, I have hit bit of a wall and am struggling to get back into the routine of going. I think if I could change my workout, it would give me the kick up the arse needed to get back. Can anyone recommend any good websites etc where I could follow a workout plan? 

[dorlomin]

4 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I dunno like, two games of fives, four days of lifting and just one day off?

How long are 5s games? As for lifting its not really that many calories. It will be about 100kcal per half hour unless you are supersetting and going intense. 

[Gaz]

1 minute ago, LondonHMFC said:

I am 6ft1 and up until I was 24/25 I was rarely ever over 12 stone. I used to cycle in and out of work each day which came to about 80 miles a week, nothing crazy, but it certainly seemed to keep the weight off. 

Anyway, since working in and around London on a constant basis, I saw my weight shoot up. I barely did any exercise and over a four year period managed to put on six stone. 

I weighed in at just over 18 stone in May, and felt like an absolute mess so joined the local gym. Managed to shed two stone through cardio, I'm not fussed about muscle building, just want to get down to about 13/14 stone. 

However with a holiday, and a few weddings over the past month, I have hit bit of a wall and am struggling to get back into the routine of going. I think if I could change my workout, it would give me the kick up the arse needed to get back. Can anyone recommend any good websites etc where I could follow a workout plan? 

I would recommend you start lifting weights. Otherwise you'll become skinnyfat and quite possibly look worse than you did before losing weight.

I'd always recommend Starting Strength as a good beginner programme for someone looking to start lifting.

[Gaz]

Just now, dorlomin said:

How long are 5s games? As for lifting its not really that many calories. It will be about 100kcal per half hour unless you are supersetting and going intense. 

Hmm, that's a point. Could always start with 2,400 and see how much progress they make. Once they stall they'll need to start eating more.

[dorlomin]

24 minutes ago, LondonHMFC said:

I am 6ft1 and up until I was 24/25 I was rarely ever over 12 stone. I used to cycle in and out of work each day which came to about 80 miles a week, nothing crazy, but it certainly seemed to keep the weight off. 

Anyway, since working in and around London on a constant basis, I saw my weight shoot up. I barely did any exercise and over a four year period managed to put on six stone. 

I weighed in at just over 18 stone in May, and felt like an absolute mess so joined the local gym. Managed to shed two stone through cardio, I'm not fussed about muscle building, just want to get down to about 13/14 stone. 

However with a holiday, and a few weddings over the past month, I have hit bit of a wall and am struggling to get back into the routine of going. I think if I could change my workout, it would give me the kick up the arse needed to get back. Can anyone recommend any good websites etc where I could follow a workout plan? 

To put it into numbers your BMR at 12 stone would have been about 1870kcal per day, your BMR at 18 stone would be about 2360. To get down to 13/14 stone your BMR would be about 1975kcal so you will need to cut or burn 400kcal a day. 

Given that target what do you enjoy? That is the key, doing something you can stick with. And one of the keys to sticking with it is habit and not hating it. Whether its running every second night, Parkrun on a weekend, commuting by bike or joining a chain gang on the weekend?

Id second doing some kind of resistance training as well, weights or body weight. Its good for all round health and keeping your joints in good working order as you start to age. 

 

This might be a good bodyweight session

Quote

10 one legged squats – each side [warning super-difficult, only attempt if you in good enough shape]
20 body weight squats
20 walking lunges (10 each leg)
20 jump step-ups (10 each leg)
10 pull ups [or inverted body weight rows using your kitchen table]
10 dips – bar stools
10 chin ups [or inverted body weight rows with underhand grip]
10 push ups
30 second plank
 

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/advanced-body-weight-workout-warning-this-will-kick-your-ass/

 

Other programs could be doing something like interval training on a spinning bike (10 minute warm up then 4 minutes hard 3 minutes recovery *3), or mixing between a running machine, a cross trainer and a rowing machine. Its a question of what do you want to do?

[Boostin' Kev]

9 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Down to 11 stone 11, fasting, 2 games of fives a week and weights/planks etc on the other 4 days, Sunday’s off. 26 pounds down in 4 month. Away to try and get down to about 11ish then start upping my weights and eating more.

 

Have done a bit of research into how much I’ll need to eat to build muscle and it seems like it’s gonna be a total pain in the arse. 2600-3000 calories a day seems like an awful lot if you’re eating healthily.

 

 

Don't over analyse it.  Just up your intake a little a time and see how you get on.  Don't know your diet but adding things like eggs, red meat, oily fish, nut butter etc is an easy and tasty way of doing it.  If you're not enjoying the process, stop doing it.

Dorlomin made a point that seems to get ignored by almost everybody when it comes to bodyfat/lean tissue,  you can easily add muscle whilst losing BF until you reach a certain stage.  I've mentioned it a few times on here but it generally gets shot down by the dinosaurs who can't use their imagination to get away from the traditional bulk/cut mentality.

[Boostin' Kev]

1 hour ago, LondonHMFC said:

I am 6ft1 and up until I was 24/25 I was rarely ever over 12 stone. I used to cycle in and out of work each day which came to about 80 miles a week, nothing crazy, but it certainly seemed to keep the weight off. 

Anyway, since working in and around London on a constant basis, I saw my weight shoot up. I barely did any exercise and over a four year period managed to put on six stone. 

I weighed in at just over 18 stone in May, and felt like an absolute mess so joined the local gym. Managed to shed two stone through cardio, I'm not fussed about muscle building, just want to get down to about 13/14 stone. 

However with a holiday, and a few weddings over the past month, I have hit bit of a wall and am struggling to get back into the routine of going. I think if I could change my workout, it would give me the kick up the arse needed to get back. Can anyone recommend any good websites etc where I could follow a workout plan? 

A couple days a week of compounds like squat, dead, flat bench press, overhead press and rows (pick 3 at a time, one squat one push exercise and one pull) along with whatever cardio related things you enjoy.  

[ICTChris]

I did HIIT for the first time in ages today as I completed my squats and presses quite quickly.  Did 12 minutes on the stationary bike, 5 minutes warm up then 30 seconds full pelt, 30 seconds half that for the remainder.

It absolutely fucked me.

[Senor Bairn]

It’s been about a 18 months since I started exercising regularly and watching what i eat. I’m 6’7 and was sitting at a minging 22 and a half stone at the start of last summer. After being scared to get my fat tits out on holiday in Greece last year I realised it was time for a change. Now sitting at 16 and half stone and feeling class.

The last month or so I’ve been quite wary of going mental and putting loads of weight on, so I’ve been sitting in a calorie deficit and eating well during the week then utterly ripping the piss at the weekend while out, I’ve not put anything back on so I’m fairly happy [emoji2].

[Ross.]

55 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

 Did 12 minutes on the stationary bike, 5 minutes warm up then 30 seconds full pelt, 30 seconds half that for the remainder.

It absolutely fucked me.

Done this a few years back, 20 seconds each, going absolutely flat out for the 20. Generally found that after the 5th or 6th "on period" I simply couldn't manage any more. Kept at it 3 times a week for 6 or 7 weeks and simply couldn't get past the same level.

[ICTChris]

52 minutes ago, Senor Bairn said:

 I’m 6’7 and was sitting at a minging 22 and a half stone at the start of last summer. 
 

You should take up rugby or American football with a build like that.

[Senor Bairn]

You should take up rugby or American football with a build like that.

I actually did play rugby from the age of about 7 and stopped playing around 16/17 due to games starting to be played on a Saturday meaning I couldn’t go watch falkirk. I was always quite big but ballooned up even more once I stopped due to the lack of exercise and drinking every weekend

[topcat(The most tip top)]

I actually did play rugby from the age of about 7 and stopped playing around 16/17 due to games starting to be played on a Saturday meaning I couldn’t go watch falkirk. I was always quite big but ballooned up even more once I stopped due to the lack of exercise and drinking every weekend

You should play sport instead of watching it while you’re young enough

You can watch Falkirk through middle age and into your dotage

[Aufc]

Down to 11 stone 11, fasting, 2 games of fives a week and weights/planks etc on the other 4 days, Sunday’s off. 26 pounds down in 4 month. Away to try and get down to about 11ish then start upping my weights and eating more.
 
Have done a bit of research into how much I’ll need to eat to build muscle and it seems like it’s gonna be a total pain in the arse. 2600-3000 calories a day seems like an awful lot if you’re eating healthily.
 
 

Not really. The plan i was on had me at 2,300 calories on a training day. Wasnt that bad. Only thing was i was fucking starving.

[Aufc]

That is what 2,300 odd calories looked like. As i said i was starving so could easily add some extra calories in there

[Thistle_do_nicely]

wee bit of a Facebook style post here but I tried bumping my standing dumbell hammer curl up to 12.5kg per dumbell a few weeks ago, physically couldn't even manage 1 rep.

A few weeks of bumping up the reps per set at 10kg and I managed to get a full set of 5 done there at 12.5kg without my form suffering (I hope anyway)! Biceps were fucking roasting afterward but I'm really pleased, starting to get noticeably firmer and leaner after about 13 weeks of sticking to the lifting and just aiming for slightly better numbers in terms of reps/total weight lifted from a skinnyfat starting point, with a bit more functional strength to boot. Will try to do 2X5 next wednesday then 3X5 the wednesday after, then try to go up by 3X6, 3X7 etc. up until I can do 3X10 at which point I'll try to up the weight again if possible.

edit: struggling a bit with the diet though - I've cut out fizzy juice almost entirely apart from maybe a glass with ice and irn bru if I'm out for a meal, but I'm finding myself drinking a lot more coffee as a replacement. Have cut down from 2 teaspoons of sugar to 1 teaspoon which is a start I suppose but I'm going to have to make a more conscious effort to cut it down, especially in work. Also borderline addicted to ice lollies (Aldi own brand Valencia orange ones a particular favourite) since the hot weather a few weeks back too, keep buying them whenever I'm in the shop without even really thinking about it until I got teased by my girlfriend about it the other day.

Still off the fags at least - there's worse things to be addicted to than lollies out there, for sure.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Thistle_do_nicely