Slimming help

D

deepfreeze

New member
Hi
Im 18, male, 5 foot 10 inches and weigh 170-175 lbs

I live and work as an outdoor instructor and am always active.
I am reasonably fit and healthy and have been for a long time, i am a keen road cyclist and enjoy many other sports aswell. (running is my enemy.)

My problem is that I have always carried more weight than I am happy with and have always tried to lose it.

As far as I can see, the only issue is with my diet. As I said I live at the outdoor centre. It is catered as it is about a 30minute drive to the nearest shop and I have no car. It also pays £47.50 a week and so clearly self catering is not an option.

The breakfasts are good. Fruit, fruit juice and bran flakes is my normal breakfast (please comment if I should change anything) with toast, other cereal and a cooked breakfast also available which i tend to avoid 95% of the time.

Lunches are not so great. Sandwiches (90% of the time white bread) chocolate biscuit, flapjack, crisps and fruit. I rarely eat everything, but it depends how active I have been during the day.

Evening meals are set, the same every week, ranging from stew and dumplings to fish/burger and chip (every thursday with no other option)
The main aim for the caterers is to make sure the kids eat enough calories as they are not used to the level of activity.

I am aiming to lose my excess fat, I am not too concerned about my weight, just my % fat.
Any tips/advice you can offer based on what I have written, or indeed your own experience, would be very much appreciated.

Any questions please do ask.

Thanks in advance.
 
Have you tried weight lifting?
Weight training burns fat like *fill in your preferred swearword* ;)

As for the cereals, some of them may sound healthy but usually they are LOADED with sugar.
The rest of your diet, that's really hard cause you don't seem to have a choice in what you get to eat.
Perhaps try to eat less of the high carbs, so little bread, potatoes, chips, etc, and more of veg and fish, eggs, poultry, lean meats?
 
deepfreeze said:
Hi
Im 18, male, 5 foot 10 inches and weigh 170-175 lbs

I live and work as an outdoor instructor and am always active.
I am reasonably fit and healthy and have been for a long time, i am a keen road cyclist and enjoy many other sports aswell. (running is my enemy.)

My problem is that I have always carried more weight than I am happy with and have always tried to lose it.

As far as I can see, the only issue is with my diet. As I said I live at the outdoor centre. It is catered as it is about a 30minute drive to the nearest shop and I have no car. It also pays £47.50 a week and so clearly self catering is not an option.

The breakfasts are good. Fruit, fruit juice and bran flakes is my normal breakfast (please comment if I should change anything) with toast, other cereal and a cooked breakfast also available which i tend to avoid 95% of the time.

Lunches are not so great. Sandwiches (90% of the time white bread) chocolate biscuit, flapjack, crisps and fruit. I rarely eat everything, but it depends how active I have been during the day.

Evening meals are set, the same every week, ranging from stew and dumplings to fish/burger and chip (every thursday with no other option)
The main aim for the caterers is to make sure the kids eat enough calories as they are not used to the level of activity.

I am aiming to lose my excess fat, I am not too concerned about my weight, just my % fat.
Any tips/advice you can offer based on what I have written, or indeed your own experience, would be very much appreciated.

Any questions please do ask.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Your meals are loaded with processed + refined foods = garbage

Instead have lean pieces of protein, complex carbs and healthy fats and fiberous, leafy veg.

A good breakfast would be 3 brown eggs+ 1/2 cup oats

A good unch would be wild salmon + a leafy green salad w/ spinach leaves, tomato, bellpepper and olive oil

A good supper would be a grilled piece of chicken + 1 cup of broccoli + yam.

A easy and healthy snack would be an apple with a spoonful or natural almond butter.

Good luck my friend
 
Wet Wolf said:
Your meals are loaded with processed + refined foods = garbage

Instead have lean pieces of protein, complex carbs and healthy fats and fiberous, leafy veg.

A good breakfast would be 3 brown eggs+ 1/2 cup oats

A good unch would be wild salmon + a leafy green salad w/ spinach leaves, tomato, bellpepper and olive oil

A good supper would be a grilled piece of chicken + 1 cup of broccoli + yam.

A easy and healthy snack would be an apple with a spoonful or natural almond butter.

Good luck my friend
Click to expand...

I am not going to lie wet wolf, you're a little out of touch with reality here... were you ever 18 years old? You think that a high school student is going to seek out some wild caught salmon, and cook it fresh with some extra-virgin olive oil, and top it off with some crisp greens from the local farmers market?
:biggrinjester::biggrinjester::biggrinjester:
haha... seriously, I laughed reading your suggestion.

It's not realistic. Great advice for someone working 9-5, or married with a stay-at-home spouse, but not for an 18 year old kid...

In the words of Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers... "you better lock it up"
 
Cereal and juice are honestly not so great for breakfast.

You're better off with eggs and/or oatmeal, veggie omelet etc.

Lunch - sandwich isn't great, but could be worse. What other options do you have? It sounds like maybe you could cut out some of the biscuits and go for lower calorie options like fruit or salad (watch the dressing) or pickles or... something.

Dinner you can just choose to not eat some of it.

If you want to lose fat and not muscle - i.e. become leaner, then the important thing is to get enough protein (That's why eggs > juice & cereal for breakfast) and move heavy objects.

Weight training definitely counts as moving heavy objects if you have the time for it :)

Also... I hear you about running being my enemy. I am not built for running, that is for damn sure :D
 
i eat a sandwich everyday and i`ve lost 36lbs, its all about the calerie intake and when you have salad in your sandwich there is nothing wrong with that atall.
 
Wet Wolf, thank you for your advice, were I at home, earning a wage, that would be a fabulous suggestion.

I tried to give as much detail about my lifestyle as I could but clearly it wasn't enough for you to understand that I do not get a choice of what i eat.

As for everyone else, thank you :)

Jeanette41-
the best I can go for at breakfast is bran flakes (just bran)
lunch, other option is either soup (homemade vegetable soup) or a sausage roll, clearly not the better option!
Dinner I do try going for the better option, chicken, pork and avoiding the (more) processed food, as im sure its all processed at some point unfortunately.
Have never liked eggs, in any form, but there aren't many other sources of protein in my diet, would something like a protein shake be an adequate substitute?
And yeah running is just horrible, thats why i prefer to bike/swim/paddle :)
Thank you!

Melancholy-
Glad someone see's sense! To be honest i'd quite happily do those things if i was home, theres a very good store that sells quality fish etc (at a cost!) but like i say, nothing available :(

I am considering joining the local gym (swimming pool included) however trying to decide whether paying half a weeks wage each month for it will be worth it, especially as the summer is drawing in fast and ill be out on my bike more. However I have no weightlifting facilities personally so that would be my only option. Still time to think.

Thanks to all so far, and any more suggestions would be much appreciated!
 
Sucks that you don't have healthier options where you are. :/

I think protein shakes would be fine to sub in. I have them myself on occasion, and probably would a lot more in your circumstances! If you can have one for breakfast and maybe some of the bran may not be too bad.

Maybe some of the veggie soup in place of the crisps and chocolate biscuit from time to time. (Although the chocolate biscuit sounds tasty...)

Really it sounds like you're doing the best you can under the circumstances, and every little bit could help!

Can you pack snacks for yourself? It sounds like you've got fruit covered where you are, what about bringing in some string cheese or nuts or something? A small insulated pack could keep stuff cool. Sadly I don't know of a lot of tasty, healthy, good amount of protein, easily portable snacks...

And yeah... running is ... blech!

I myself do go to a gym, but in a pinch you can do some bodyweight exercises (like push-ups, squats and lunges) and then fill milk jugs with water to give you extra weights if you're really cash crunched.

I keep meaning to pick up a copy of Never Gymless, but since I go to a gym I haven't gotten around to it. I've heard good things about it though!
 
Melancholy said:
You can take the girl out of prison, but you can't take the prison out of the girl :smilielol5:
Click to expand...

ROFL! ... They lift milk jugs in prison!? ZOMG! I thought they all had weight benches and stuff ;)
 
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