Hi from Wales

S

Scottee

0
Hi Guys

Just signed up so be gentle on me :)

I'm Scott, and im from South Wales in the UK, I work in IT for a large UK broadband ISP. I've come here after some advice and some inspiration. Over the last few (student) years, I let myself fall to pieces, at my worst I was at 189lbs, with a massive belly, and man boobs :rolleyes:

Over the last 4-5 months, i've kicked myself into gear, and managed to drop down to 154lbs, and gained quite a bit of muscle mass. Right now, I'm in the gym about 4 times a week, with a mainly cardio workout (usually a 6k run, and situps), and about 4 times a week at home with freeweights/bench work (about a 40min workout).

My problem is, although i've lost a pretty large amount of weight, i still have a belly. The odd thing is, i dont *think* alot of it is fat, its really loose and flappy... i'm thinking excess skin with some fat? Does anyone have any advice on the best exercise that i can do that would tighten this up? is what is currently looking like

I’ve also been trying to sort out a food plan, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
hello scotte welcome to the forum. :) you can type clean diet into the search function at the top of the screen and there is loads of info on the site about the kinds of food, times to eat etc...i have to say great fob your look fab, just stick with it. what are you currently doing as per your weight traing. hard to advise without that kind of info.. so post up your routine and you'll get a better response. also you can search - belly fat etc. if its loose skin there isn't to much you can do about it, getting some defintion and muscle may help it look better though. hope you find what your looking for and again great job. :)
 
hi mate and welcome to the site, i'm quite new aswel, just signed up 3 days ago and only live down the road in swindon! Good luck on ur mission, i'd hit the free weights lifting compound techniques along with a high protien diet. Do you know all the basics like 1gram of protien to 1gram of bodyweight etc?
 
Ok this is generally what I do 3-4 times a week

Afternoon (usually between 12-2pm)
3 sets of 12 Standing Upright Rows (50lbs)
3 Sets of 12 Standing Curls (50lbs)
2 Sets of 10 on Bench (132lbs)

Gym Evening (usually 8pm)
50 Crunches
10 reps of Seated Chest Press (145lbs)
10 reps of Lat PullDown (180lbs)
10 reps of Seated Shoulder Press (95lbs)
50 Crunches
5-7km Run (30-40mins)
Rest (5mins)
50 Crunches
10 reps of Seated Chest Press (145lbs)
10 reps of Lat PullDown (180lbs)
10 reps of Seated Shoulder Press (95lbs)
50 Crunches


Weekends
Sat

Afternoon (usually between 12-2pm)
3 sets of 12 Standing Upright Rows (50lbs)
3 Sets of 12 Standing Curls (50lbs)
2 Sets of 10 on Bench (132lbs)
40Min Walk around the local park

Gym Evening (usually 8pm)
50 Crunches
10 reps of Seated Chest Press (145lbs)
10 reps of Lat PullDown (180lbs)
10 reps of Seated Shoulder Press (95lbs)
50 Crunches
5-7km Run (30-40mins)
Rest (5mins)
50 Crunches
10 reps of Seated Chest Press (145lbs)
10 reps of Lat PullDown (180lbs)
10 reps of Seated Shoulder Press (95lbs)
50 Crunches

Sundays
Usually day of rest - nothing


My diet is generally

Morning (7am-9am)
1 Low fat yoghart or low fat moose
1 Pack of Snac-a-jacs (like a low fat corn snack, same size as a packet of potoato chips)

Afternoon (12-2pm)
Either Wholewheat Pasta with a low fat sauce or Chicken with Jacket Potato with
extra light cheese spread or a bowl of prawns(from frozen) or 2 tins of tuna
1 Low fat yoghart or low fat moose

Evening (9-10pm)
Usually packet of processed chicken with salad extra light cheese
spread
Usually lots of fruit like apples/grapes/pineapple/melon

I think I have a few problems. First one is that I used to drink LOADS of fizzy drinks. over the last few months, i changed to diet drinks, now i've changed to flavored water (I cant drink normal water all the time!). Also, i dont like veg, i'll eat raw carrotts and swede, but thats about it :(

I know i'm not taking in enough cals, but i get full with what I eat. I know I shoudnt really work out as late as I do, but due to my work pattern, its the only time I get free :(

Any tips on how I can change what I do? Or where I'm going wrong
 
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in my opinion i would include more lean meats in that diet mate, chicken, turkey, steak, pork etc. and dairy products, dont be afraid to eat some fat asel but not too much, and i wouldnt use use machines mate they are a waste of time,your body is supported so they isolate specific muscle groups, and not the stabalizing muscles. you tend to get more of a sense of achievment than actual progress tbh. use a bench and a challenging set of dumbells but make sure you warm up first tho! you wont be dissapointed mate and remember your muscles only grow when you rest! :cool:
 
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Hi Scott - welcome to the forum and congratulations on losing so much weight! From your picture, it doesn't look like you have all that much loose skin but, if you do, I have heard that skin takes a little while to catch up if you lose weight rapidly so, it could simply be a matter of patience. Obviously, when very large people lose a lot of wieght, surgery can be the only option to remove excess skin but, that doesn't look to be your situation.

With regards your routine and diet, I used to work in IT so, I understand how anti-social the hours can be. Are you still making progress with your current routine? Presumably you still want to lose more bodyfat? If so, you really should try drinking plain water (zero calories) and lots of it - especially cold water as your body has to heat it up thus burning free calories with no extra effort :)

I would also add more meals to your diet. As you said, you aren't getting enough calories. Try to eat something approximately every 3 hrs (not a full meal necessarily) and you should help boost your metabolism. You'll see a lot of people saying on here that they eat 6 - 7 times a day (myself included.)

Not sure what your goals are from the workout routine. My goals are to build lean muscle mass and reduce bodyfat so, on the days I'm not lifting weights, I do a crazy amount of cardio - its not for everyone but, it works for me...although, you seem to be achieving your goals otherwise - good job :D
 
Yea, the main plan is to keep loosing bodyfat, and gain a little more muscle mass. I think im being impatent, the weight is coming off, just not as fast as I like. Since my first posting, i've still lost another 4lbs (down to 152lbs)

I'm going to try and increase my cal intake, and eat more... but i REALLY will be forcing myself to eat (which is ironic, because originally when I started I had to CUTDOWN what I as eating).

Plans are to start running down the beach too (We live rihgt by Swansea Bay) and start on more freeweights in the gym. Thanks for the advice folks, i'll keep you updated, maybe if im not so lazy, i'll write a diary in that forum
 
mate, dont eat unless u are hungry, then only eat until ur satisfied, there is no real need to force urself to eat when the body deosent need it :cool: just bump up the cals 500 every week, u need to train ur stomach again to accept more food mate
 
Ed, I have to disagree with you there - if I only ate when I was hungry, I would probably only eat once or twice a day! As Scott isn't taking in enough calories at the moment, the most effective way to increase them is to add a couple of snacks inbetween his current meals.

Little and often
 
if you don't eat enough you will not see gains nuber one and whats up with all the crunches?? add weight make it a challenge..you got like 200 crunches there. weight and knock down the volume..
 
ChrisJG said:
Ed, I have to disagree with you there - if I only ate when I was hungry, I would probably only eat once or twice a day! As Scott isn't taking in enough calories at the moment, the most effective way to increase them is to add a couple of snacks inbetween his current meals.

Little and often
Click to expand...

i agree with splitting ur meals throughout the day, ive being eating this way for 2 yrs and it has made an impact but i had to train myself to eat this way because i was so used to eating 3 big meals a day, when i felt hungry i ate until i was satisfied but not full, this continued throughout the day, over the weeks i started to add extra items of food into my meals upping the cals week by week, giving my stomach the chance to gradually grow and accept the extra intake of food. now i can happily consume 2800cals a day genuinely feeling hungry for it, what im saying is u cant suddenly bombard your gut with food you need to do it in moderation gradually increasing ur BMR, i'm not sayng starve urself at all just add cals week by week until ur eating enough scottee


i used to eat 3 big meals a day, before i understood the concept of eating 5-6 meals a day. i had to train my stomach to accep
 
Thanks for the advice on the diet folks. The reason my cal intake is so low is because I tend to work a split shift, and I am useless in the morning, so my day usually consists of... wake up at 7:15am, eat a Yogart, leave for work at 7:35am... have a snack in work, get home by midday, have my main meal, then go back to work by 4pm and work through until 8pm, then gym till 9:30pm (its the works gym) and by the time I get home, its pretty late, and either a) im to tired to eat (probibly because I have not had many cals in the day!) or b) its to late to really eat anything big.

The only thing I can think of it getting a 2nd meal before I leave for work at 4pm, but i really wont be hungry if I ate at midday already . I think maybe healthy snacks while in work are the way forward?

The thing is the weight IS still dropping off, when really, I think I should be leveling out (im currently at 152lbs and 5ft 10inches). All this fitness stuff is complex, sometimes I wish I was out of shape again lol.
 
I think maybe the word 'meal' is the problem here. When I say I eat 6 meals a day, what I actually mean by that is I eat 6 'times' a day. If I have an apple mid-morning, I consider that a 'meal'. If I have a protein shake before bed, thats another 'meal'. If I eat a yoghurt mid-afternonn, that is also a 'meal'. By the same token, if I have tuna steak, rice and veggies in the evening, that is no more of a 'meal' than anything else. Does that make sense?

A yoghurt or apple isn't going to fill me up but, it will mean that I'm not going to be starving for a few hours. I guess you need to experiment a bit and figure out a routine that works for you.
 
Yes, that makes much much more sence lol. So I would be having about 3-4 Meals (if we include what i've be classing as little snacks) a day, which I guess isnt that bad ;)
 
Exactly. My calorie intake is somewhere around 1600 - 1800 a day (BMR = 2150) and I spread it over all 6 'meals'. But, in the traditional sense of what a meal is, I only have 3. Toast or a protein shake for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch (chicken/tuna/ham) and then a 'proper meal' in the evening after the gym. The other stuff I'm eating are what you would consider snacks but, the idea is to let my body know it is constantly being refuelled so, it needn't worry about burning its current fat reserves when it needs to.
 
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