Huge lifestyle change

david

Hi first time posting here. I'm midway through my SF year in College and have been living for the moment so to speak since i moved out of my parent's house with little thought of my health/fitness. 18 months of beer/pizza/eating badly and inconsistently eventually catches up on you as I'm sure some of you know.

So I had an epiphany last Monday and decided to get eating properly once and for all. I won't go into detail on my old diet but there were a lot of deli-made rolls/soft drinks/general junk involved.

I'm 20yrs old, male, 5'11" and 196 lbs with a BMI of 27.3 which is overweight.

So far a sample of my diet (today's) would be:

***

Breakfast 8.30am: 2 medium slices of wholegrain brown bread with 75g smoked salmon, cup of tea (no milk/sugar)

Lunch 1.30pm: 2 medium slices of wholegrain brown bread, 300g tomato and basil soup

Dinner 5pm: Chicken stir-fry (1 medium chicken fillet, 1/2 pepper, 1/2 onion, small clove of garlic, 1 carrot, minimal soy sauce fried in a drop of olive oil) served with boiled wholegrain rice

Also (snacks): 2 Apples, 1 banana, about 3l of water, (maybe more, I didn't measure)

***

7 days on I feel and look great (energy up, better skin etc) with no food cravings at all. I've cut fizzy drinks/confectionary/booze completely. The only snag is I've lost 7lbs in a week. This seems a bit drastic for me as I was not primarily looking to lose weight, just to improve my diet. I'm trying to get a decent amount of complex carbs/protein/fats (omega 3, lots of exams coming up so I'll need the brain power hehe) but as you can guess I'm no nutritionist.

My plan is to get into the gym in College (free) and get a cardio program worked out later on in the week when I have time to get my fitness back up to a reasonable level.

So am I eating ok? Any tips on recipes/food to avoid or fitness programmes for either the gym/home would be much appreciated.

D.

Serafijn

Hi David,

Good on you for making the decision to clean up your diet, no surprises that you're feeling better already

Your diet seems to be very bread-heavy, maybe try porridge for breakfast instead? It's a firm favourite with a lot of the regulars on here, myself included Or scrambled egg with mushrooms and tomatoes if you have a bit more time.

Try using something like fitday.com, you register and enter your stats and food intake and it will work out all the numbers for you. It even keeps track of your vitamin intake and tells you what you're short on.

Regarding fitness, just do something you will enjoy and keep doing! Take up a sport you enjoy, start going out jogging or cycling. Whatever, just start off gently and gradually up the time and intensity as you get fitter.

Good luck with it and let us know how you get on

menoscemo

Don't worry about the huge weight loss in the first week, you will tend to find that in going from a bad diet to a good diet, you will immediately lose a huge amount of retained water weight immediately. Basically your body has been retaining a huge amount of water to dilute the toxins in your body due to bad diet (especially alcohol). The weight loss will plateau and if you are losing too much then just eat more (of the good foods obviously)

david

Thanks for the advice I'm still going strong. Weighed myself there now on new scales 182lbs after dinner :O. I hope the old one was inaccurate.

What are peoples thoughts on lean grilled bacon? Had 2 slices one day hesitantly in the gf's house.. Any idea of the calorie count?