hey guys. i'm here because i'm a little bit baffled on nutrition. let me give you some background information first!
i'm 5'6'', 20, and i weigh 64 kilos. i started on a fitness quest quite a while ago because i wanted to improve my overall physical appearence. i've dropped about 10 kilograms in weight for which i am very porud of, and have been regularly going to a gym (3 days a week, usually) and doing cardio frequently as well. but i've come to a bit of a cross roads in what i am wanting to achieve; and i need the nutritional advice to assist in how i am going about it. i still have quite a bit of flab on my body, which i want to burn off; but i also want to increase my muscle mass (not that much; i'm not a body builder or anything. i just want a nice toned appearance in the end with slightly more
muscle mass); but really it's nutrition that gets me. here's a rough idea (though this is not always absolute) of what ih ave been eating lately;
breakfast; usually a bowl of oatmeal (with a little bit of milk) accompanied with a piece of fruit and occasionally some sardines / 2-3 eggs (though i don't take the yoke out when i do this and usually fry them in extra-virgin olive oil; or just boil them)
lunch; just a tin of tuna in a sandwich between two pieces of whole wheat bread
dinner; (the most varied; difficult to roughly define) but usually includes something like a piece of red/white meat, a bunch of vegetables, brown rice and other stuff.
and snacks during the day usually consist of almonds, apples/pears/bananas/raw carrots/tomato whole like a handfruit, dried apricots and a LOT of water. etc
my main concern at the moment is burning most of the remaining fat off my figure (whilst still doing resistance training) before i begin to focus more heavily on muscle toning/muscle gaining; my questions all here however, start in the kitchen.
1) am i eating too much food at the moment to properly facilitate fat loss, or am i eating too little to promote my existing muscles to decay? keep in mind i have a quick metabolism that has been supplemented by alot of strenuous cardio. should i focus on cutting then increasing muscle mass, or is it possible to do it the other way round? if so, i'd still rather go with option a.
2) after i have burned off fat and start to focus on gaining more muscle/muscle toning, how many calories would i need to eat daily to achieve my goals? getting calorie count down (and at a consistent daily routine) is probably the hardest part about this whole fitness thing to me, so it would be cool if any of you guys could help out with some advice. i'm not asking for exact figures (as that's impossible) but a rough estimate would be great.
remember my long term fitness goal isnt large bulky mass, just somewhat more muscle with a much more toned physical appearance. i realize i have a long way to go on this and am very new, but i am more than willing to put all the effort i can into making this work!
sorry for the long post. advice would be very much appreciated, thank you.
i'm 5'6'', 20, and i weigh 64 kilos. i started on a fitness quest quite a while ago because i wanted to improve my overall physical appearence. i've dropped about 10 kilograms in weight for which i am very porud of, and have been regularly going to a gym (3 days a week, usually) and doing cardio frequently as well. but i've come to a bit of a cross roads in what i am wanting to achieve; and i need the nutritional advice to assist in how i am going about it. i still have quite a bit of flab on my body, which i want to burn off; but i also want to increase my muscle mass (not that much; i'm not a body builder or anything. i just want a nice toned appearance in the end with slightly more
muscle mass); but really it's nutrition that gets me. here's a rough idea (though this is not always absolute) of what ih ave been eating lately;
breakfast; usually a bowl of oatmeal (with a little bit of milk) accompanied with a piece of fruit and occasionally some sardines / 2-3 eggs (though i don't take the yoke out when i do this and usually fry them in extra-virgin olive oil; or just boil them)
lunch; just a tin of tuna in a sandwich between two pieces of whole wheat bread
dinner; (the most varied; difficult to roughly define) but usually includes something like a piece of red/white meat, a bunch of vegetables, brown rice and other stuff.
and snacks during the day usually consist of almonds, apples/pears/bananas/raw carrots/tomato whole like a handfruit, dried apricots and a LOT of water. etc
my main concern at the moment is burning most of the remaining fat off my figure (whilst still doing resistance training) before i begin to focus more heavily on muscle toning/muscle gaining; my questions all here however, start in the kitchen.
1) am i eating too much food at the moment to properly facilitate fat loss, or am i eating too little to promote my existing muscles to decay? keep in mind i have a quick metabolism that has been supplemented by alot of strenuous cardio. should i focus on cutting then increasing muscle mass, or is it possible to do it the other way round? if so, i'd still rather go with option a.
2) after i have burned off fat and start to focus on gaining more muscle/muscle toning, how many calories would i need to eat daily to achieve my goals? getting calorie count down (and at a consistent daily routine) is probably the hardest part about this whole fitness thing to me, so it would be cool if any of you guys could help out with some advice. i'm not asking for exact figures (as that's impossible) but a rough estimate would be great.
remember my long term fitness goal isnt large bulky mass, just somewhat more muscle with a much more toned physical appearance. i realize i have a long way to go on this and am very new, but i am more than willing to put all the effort i can into making this work!
sorry for the long post. advice would be very much appreciated, thank you.
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