Looking for critique on my current regimen.

[Tha_Dude]

Hello, I have lost about 25 pounds since January.



I seem to be stuck at 245 for the past month or two. But while stuck there, my body composition has changed a bit from what I can see in pictures and when I do measurements.

I think I eat healthy but according to some of the reading I've done here, some people who think they're eating healthy actually aren't. I will give a rough breakdown of what I eat and hopefully someone can tell me if I'm doing it right.

Most breakfasts I eat a bowl of cereal with 2% milk. For a snack afterward I eat a nutri-grain bar or a fruit or two.

For lunch I'll make myself a turkey or chicken sandwich with consist of either a turkey patty (the kind they sell at Sam's Club) or a nice sized chicken breast along with 2 slices of wheat bread, tomato, lettuce, avocado, a slice of american cheese, and on a occasion bbq sauce. I eat that along with a side of steamed vegetables (usually cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots all chopped up).

Sometimes instead of vegetables I eat it with a side of beans and rice. Other times I just cook the meat without adding all the sandwich stuff and eat that with a side of veggies or beans and rice.

I eat a lot of fruit throughout the day and drink about 3 liters of water a day. I've just been drinking water, and on rare occasions drink some sort of fruit juice. Soda has been completely out of the picture since last fall. Red meat is also a no-no lately.

When I'm on the run and have to eat out I usually get myself a chicken burrito from Taco Bell, the kind that has beans, rice, chicken, the chopped veggies and always with NO sauce of any kind.

So that's basically all I've been eating, most times I'll have the same thing for dinner that I had for lunch.

I've been doing an hour of cardio a day, keeping my heart rate above 150/160. I mostly do a steep incline on the treadmill at 3.5mph since I'm not conditioned enough to run for very long yet. I usually get weights in about once a week.

I feel "stuck" at 245, and it surely makes me feel like my goal of 180 is farther away than it should.

Your advice and critique on my current regimen would be gladly appreciated.

P.S. sorry for the long post...

 

[RJAZ520]

How many calories are you eating?

 

[Tha_Dude]

I personally don't like the idea of counting calories. Being healthy should come as second nature and not require so much calculation. I believe that it's just in being healthy all the time and only eating like you should always and not having to count calories. The idea of counting just doesn't appeal to me. I'd rather just know what to avoid and what I should be munching on.

 

[RJAZ520]

I would suggest trying for a short time just to get a realistic view of what u are eating. But if not. Then I would say eat a lean protein with every meal, eat a lot of fiberous vegetables and cut down on the simple carbs. Good luck with the guess work.

 

[Jynus]

basic points cause i need to run
1) too many simple carbs
2) not eating enough
3) no healthy fats
4) too many carbs in general for what i'm seeing for your particular macro breakdown. carbs shuld be 40-50% of your daily calories. looks like its 60-75% for you.
5) your exercise routine isn't intense enough. drop 2 cardio a week as honestly steady state cardio sucks for fat loss. period. Do weight 2x more per week with big full body compound movements.

 

[Cord the Seeker]

honestly steady state cardio sucks for fat loss. period.

I take issue with this.

You say this a lot as though it is gospel truth, when there are a lot of different ways to exercise effectively for weight loss.

Look at this article from Tom Venuto's blog:



While interval training is undoubtedly a more efficient way to work out than steady-state cardio, that doesn't always make it more effective.

Take particular note of where Tom says that "mountains of other research has proven that walking (GASP! - low intensity cardio!) has always been one of the most successful exercise methods for overweight men and women."

Think about that before you demand that steady state cardio sucks ass.

HIIT is not necessarily going to be the best method for everyone. Many very heavy people can't even do it effectively.

That being said, for the OP - I do recommend taking a much closer look at your diet. It does sound like you might benefit from counting your calories just to get a realistic idea of how many cals you are taking in in a day, and also what your macronutrient balance looks like.

I do also agree that you probably need to change your exercise routine. If you get into a workout rut, always doing the same thing, like the treadmill, your body learns to become more efficient at doing it, and the benefit is reduced.
Try some other activities. Ramp up your intensity. And definitely add in more resistance training - not only does it burn lots of calories, but you need it to maintain strength and muscle mass. Maybe alternate days of cardio and weights.
Interval training is great if your body can handle it. But if it can't yet, don't sweat it.

 

[Jynus]

you're welcome to your opinion. i'm welcome to mine. i've seen far too any people plateau a few months in on their steady state program and not budge from there. Steady state cardio blows ass for fat loss. I'll re insist on the 'period'. Just use your eyes, look at ANY long distance runner. They do steady state cardio for hours upon hours every day, in order to end up fatter than sprinters who don't do a lick of cardio. Hell, I'll use myself as a perfect example. I played national level ultimate frisbee for a couple years. While getting to that level isn't a big accomplishment, the fact that I was able to play at an elite level speaks to my cardiovascular conditioning level. I did hours upon hours of running every week and the fact that if anything i gained weight and lost muscle by the end of the season spoke volumes. the year after that, i only did weights with 1x/week hiit in a pool and cut down 15lbs while gaining size all over the place in chest, arms, legs in 5 months time. In my own body the difference was crystal clear as to which is more effective.

I'm not denying it's benefits, but what I am saying that reliance on thinking that cardio will blast the fat is simply false. Resistance training should be the focus on any program with a well done cardio program to supplement it.

 

[Cord the Seeker]

I'm not denying it's benefits, but what I am saying that reliance on thinking that cardio will blast the fat is simply false. Resistance training should be the focus on any program with a well done cardio program to supplement it.

But that is not what you said. What you said is that steady state cardio sucks. Which is exactly denying its benefits. It is nothing else but denying its benefits.

If you had instead said that resistance training is important, that interval training is more efficient, or simply that ss cardio is often insufficient by itself, I would not have disagreed with you, because those are all good and sensible statements.

Edit - apologies to the OP for hijacking this thread. I didn't really intend to, honest.

 

[Tha_Dude]

It's all good, all this is very educational, and surely gives me stuff to look into. Thanks for the advice guys, hopefully this can get me back on track.

 

[Steve]

For what it's worth, I side with Cord.

I appreciate the time Jynus spends handing out advice but the absolute statements are a real turn off for me. Things aren't black/white in this profession, EVER. Especially when dealing with this form of communication where little is known about the people on the receiving end of advice.

Painting things as either/or can lead more people astray than help.

Just my opinion.

In addition, I've been doing this a long time... this training gig. It's very rare in my experience that the cause of a plateau stems from steady state. The rare time I have encountered it, it's not with populations you'd find on this forum. It's with lean women trying to get leaner for various reasons that aren't important to this conversation.

This isn't about me vs. Jynus or Cord vs. Jynus either so I hope nobody takes it to that level. It's about sharing opinions based on experiences and letting others form their own opinions off this.

Transcending opinions and looking at the actual data though would not leave me to say "steady state cardio sucks."

 

[wick]

pointers

imo this is how you should end up when u get to 13% bf... pick a few and start implementing gradually

- drink only water, tea, coffee.. no sweetner, no artificial sweetners, no "diet" sodas
- hit the heavy weights at least 4 days a week for 45 mins each day
- do ss or HIIT cardio for at least 30 mins AFTER weights ( i prefer ss)
- absolutely NO FAST FOOD unless its cheat day (AT THE MOST 1 a week cheat)
- 2 multivitamins one morn one night
- veggies (broc, coliflour, spinach) and protein for every meal... (4+ meals a day)
- the more fat u eat, the less ull burn off ur body, only the good fats should be eaten on purpose (ull get enough bad fat from the protein sources alone... if u fry, use paper towel to take away most of the oil)

The real trick is, to have long periods of not screwing up the diet... what i mean is... do 3-4-5 days exactly as indicated with no cheating... the fat will melt off... then the day when u do mess up, u will already have less bf%. But, if instead you make small cheats/screwups everyday, this will stop most progress that u can make. So yeah, having 3 perfect days then 1 cheat is better than having 0 perfect days... trust me

The truth and most sad part is, by the time u get to this level, ull realize that u are eating exclusively 100% natural, unprocessed foods and drinks.. and ull find that less than 20% of the isles in supermarkets are dedicated to those products. That speaks of the trash that we are being sold by many companies....

and the taco bell burrito?? drop it... god knows what they put in that stuff... i wouldnt be surprised at all if its got a load of fat + some sneaky high GI sugars in it... honestly, i think many fast food chains thrive because of the insulin addictions they cause to our bodies... but yes thats another topic