No problem on the fluids there then. You will know many people who make the questions I asked valid.
There are so many myths around protein intake. When you look at a miracle food that is supposed to be able to make you gain and lose weight it raises red flags, that was what started me learning decades ago.
Good diet is about balance and if you know there is something missing sensible supplements can be useful. However in most cases people supplement without needing to which messes up the balance. The western diet is high in fats, sugars, protein and salt so proportionately low in the complex carbs we are designed to get most of our energy from. Supplements are generally high in proteins and sugars, even some salts, stuff most are having too much of anyway.
If you think I am typing nonsense, please check what I say, it is dangerous to rely on one persons opinions and what I will admit is years old research. In modern times however I have had to produce stats regarding health which show the fastest growing cause for blindness worldwide is type 2 diabetes because of high sugar intake, instances of diabetes are growing faster than those of heart disease hence I raised a red flag over your sugar intake, I will go further later because I don't think you are at risk of diabetes but there is more to understand.
The insulin curve issue. The human body is one of the most resilient regarding sugar intake of any animal not designed for having sugar as it's main energy source, a fact making the previous paragraph more shocking. We can do this by using insulin to remove excess glucose from the bloodstream, but this system has a weakness, it's inability to forecast.
When you eat any form of carbs they are broken down to glucose for absorption into the blood. complex carbs we are designed for take time to be broken down and release glucose slowly over a period of around half an hour in most cases. Simple carbs are broken down almost instantly and flood the bloodstream with glucose, especially fructose (fruit sugar) which is glucose with a different name. This doesn't make fruit unhealthy but something to be wary of dried in cereal bars.
The body will always try to prepare for upcoming hazards, in the case of sugar intake this will be by releasing a load of insulin, usually more than is needed to get rid of the influx of glucose, once or twice a day this is fine, when more frequent this becomes an issue. When there is too much glucose to store as glycogen this will be converted to fat for storage, which is why people think carbs = fat, then with a level of glucose below ideal because of the sudden dump of insulin the body sends out signals of hunger calling for instant sugar.
So high sugar diets result in sudden influxes being converted to fat and you being hungry for more sugar starting the whole process again. Complex carbs, the delightful bland starch is different, it still releases glucose but the slower release means the body gets the insulin balance right, in fact it often leaves more glucose in the blood at the end as long it's within safe limits making you feel alert and awake longer.
Protein, a sample of truth. We need it, without it we will die, but that is the same for most nutrients given time. It is used to repair and build body tissue, including the cells used to store fat and of course muscle. It is also used to build enzymes to assist digestion, hormones to make your life possible and hellish on occasion. They are building materials not miracle workers.
The human animal didn't survive millions of years being wasteful, when it has more of anything than it needs it tries to use it when possible. In the case of fats, straight to storage, carbs convert to fat and store. Some protein is similar to the carbs in that way where it can combining amino acids to make lipoproteins and storing them as fats, any that cannot be combined in this way have to be disposed of before they break down to ammonia in the body, this is done by converting them to urea and disposed of in urine, a process requiring disposal of water, heavy stuff.
So high protein diets can make you lose weight in short term as water, but long term they will increase levels of stored fat. Even with this I recommend having a diet with a tiny amount more protein than you need if training because you will burn this fat easily. However this doesn't need supplements we get enough of it already.
Balance. I tend to use food pyramids for rough guidance on proportion of food, avoid those saying portion numbers, I have never met anyone knowing what a portion is. Look at volume alone, mostly staple foods, potato, pasta etc. then veg and fruit, then meat, whole dairy, fish etc. with oils, sweets, sauces etc. being the slightest hint or the cherry at the top of the pyramid.
If you want to gain weight eat the same balance but more of it, lose it same balance but less of it. It looks far too simple but once you have your balance it really is that easy to work out.
Exercise variation. The body gets used to doing the same thing and becomes more efficient at it, so to keep the body working harder on resistance work you need to shuffle things up, ideally every couple of months. This could be changing exercises, style of training or both. Examples could be doing a session with squats, leg press and calf raises on a machine for 3 sets of 15, then change to 4 sets of 10 after a couple of months or switch out the exercises to hack squats, tuck jumps and barbell calf raises etc.
Cardio loves variety, static state is good when used along with some intervals on other days, varying activities is always good, says the man doing the same run 3 days a week for almost a year. Even doing static state can be varied, changing distance and pace can be a good way to keep the body guessing, 20 minutes at a high pace one day and 30 at a moderate pace the next is still variation.
Office work turned positive. I like my desk job, spent years doing manual work and the soft, heated, air conditioned environment is much nicer. It enables me to have a microwave rice steamer (looks like a bucket) with rice soy sauce and eggs in it and a bowl of oats and milk on my desk all day and just eat a spoon of forkful at a time slowly through the day, meaning I never end up hungry and can eat what I need. For me this is a way of eating more, but in the case of weight loss this browsing style can be a way to eat small amounts through the day to prevent hunger and be burning the energy before it gets stored as fat.
As I said it also gives you a guaranteed recovery time so you can train as insanely as you want burning more energy. Yes your colleagues will laugh at you when your buttock ache so much you look like you didn't make it to the toilet in time, but either they will be trainers themselves and appreciate it or you can laugh at them for being out of breath on the stairs or looking like bowling balls. It's good to give colleagues a laugh anyway, it stops them hating you for being perfect, which of course you will be for years to come.
This is obviously still very high level stuff. There are some great exercise routines etc. on here and general guidance. When seeking generic advice the name to look for is definitely Goldfish, he is undoubtedly one of the best generic trainers I have encountered, I very rarely disagree with his stuff, we occasionally add to each others because he's read more up to date stuff while I read to insomnia curing levels years ago.
so big improvement!!!