Fat and 43!

peteb2 · 10-01-2022 5:02pm #1

I'm sure this is usually the time of year for this stuff!! Let myself lag a bit during covid. I'm 6 foot and have always been heavy despite playing a lot of sports. Started doing 5 or 10km running about 10 years ago when i was just getting married. Was 16 stone at the time and got down to about 14 regularly. Was around that up until last year when i stopped running and kept eating copious amounts of chocolate! (Special offers in Tesco's where its cheaper to buy a massive bar than a normal size doesn't help - combined with a lack of will power!!)

Anyway here i find myself back at 16 stone!! I've set a goal to do half marathon in March and I've a 12 week plan starting this week I'll follow. (I'm a plan man. If it says do X i will X because the "plan" says so!) I'm reasoanbly fit. But lets face it i wont be winning any races. I do that for sake of a target. However at no point in my life have i ever done any form of strength training! So i wouldnt do a pull up to save my life. I've 2 kids, a job, and maybe an hour at best every second day to do some of this. Needless to say money is always tight. Living in D24 so looking at the likes of Flyefit. But obviously I havent a rashers where to start on the strength. Is there any kind of generic beginners plan out there? Or is best to get a PT for 2 or 3 sessions so i can get something done up.

Before anyone saying anything about diet, I spent most my pudgy teenage years on some type or another. So not keen on changing anything there. Anyway once i dump the crisps and chocolate this week, I'm usually a standard weetabix for brekkie, ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and fruit throughtout the day with healthy enough home made dinner. Its the night time chocolate that kills me (and should go away).

Any advice welcome.

10-01-2022 6:15pm

You need to lose Abit but not that much...cut out the choc and bread .

Macy0161 · 11-01-2022 12:10pm

I wouldn't say go on a diet, but I would consider a change in diet. Small, sustainable, changes probably starting with portion control. Depriving myself completely of foods and food groups I enjoy would just lead me to binge to be honest. (Having been "big boned" my whole life, until I (gradually) wasn't).

I always recommend The Fitness Chef/ Graeme Tomlinson; Scott Baptie/ Food for Fitness; and Ben Carpenter for sensible science based info.

bladespin · 11-01-2022 12:24pm

Track your intake and understand it, that's about all you need to do, no matter how unpleasant it is it'll always end back at what you're eating, that said you certainly don't have to eat like a pidgeon either, just be aware of how much you 'should' eat vs how much you are eating.

11-01-2022 12:47pm

Weight loss is approximately 80% diet/nutrition and 20% exercise.

I'd recommend getting a calorie counter app like MyFitnessPal (free to use most features) and tracking your current eating habits, you'll soon notice where you're going wrong.

Create the following categories in the app:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Afternoon Snacks

Evening Snacks

Alcohol

Black Sheep · 11-01-2022 1:36pm

+1 on a calorie counting app to identify what a deficit for you would be, and to get a handle on what you need to do to implement that. That would be my main recommendation for weight loss.

I understand, based on your first post, that that's not really what you want to hear, you mention not wanting to change diet at the present. That's understandable if you've had bad experiences there in the past, but worth a second look.

If the way you want to address this is with increased activity and strength then I would suggest you consider a well-known beginner's strength program that's well-supported with apps, videos and training advice. Starting Strength is a really popular option that you could do worse than, for example. There would be some trouble-shooting required with learning to squat, bench, deadlift and press, but it's very do-able and a popular choice for guys starting out. If you have an issue with a particular lift then that's where coaching can come in.

peteb2 · 11-01-2022 4:07pm

Thanks for the advice lads. Drinking wouldn't be the problem. It would be my tendancy to binge on chocolate! But i'll see whether calories come from although i know from roughly counting calories over the years that I'd be eating below what i need to do if i could kick the bloody snacking!

The weight thing is just coming from the perspective of having never done any form of strength training i should probably do something. I'm not relying on that to solve the weight loss.

Patsy167 · 11-01-2022 4:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058227095/fat-and-43

On the exercise side, try to find something that you enjoy and it will make it a hell of a lot easier. Keep searching until you find an exercise that works for you and no need to be wedded to a single one. It could be 5 a side soccer, Tennis, Badminton, Group exercise classes, a long walk with a podcast, or swimming.

You'll often see people killing themselves running and hating every step of it thinking that its the only option. It often leads to eating bad foods and binging to compensate for the misery of it which undoes any good. Contrast that with the pleasure of swimming or walking outdoors.

peteb2 · 11-01-2022 4:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456428#Comment_118456428

Ah I am one of the crazy people that likes running. i just got out of the habit! I play 5 a side once a week. I'd love to get back into squash or tennis but most mates around here are soccer heads! I'm fairly active. I just wanted to do something a little different in terms of the strength side of things.

It's like seeing the ads for vitamins and thinking why in 43 years i've never done that. Surely i should be. 😁 I'm also best when operating to a plan.

Black Sheep · 11-01-2022 4:59pm

If you did want to do the strength program I mentioned in the last post, Starting Strength, then the basic set-up is here:-

https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs

The novice program involves training 3 days a week, alternating a "A" day and a "B" day. On your "A" day you would do back squats, overhead barbell press and deadlift. On your "B" day you would do back squats, bench press and deadlift. The page I linked to explains that you would warm-up and then complete the prescribed amount of sets and reps for each exercise, and how to progress. On this program you would be starting light, but adding a small plate every workout until you are no longer able to. This program has a slightly different 'advanced' novice version that comes later, but what I've linked to would be enough to get you started.

There are books, videos and apps associated with Starting Strength that would provide all the further information you might need, but a very useful resource - which is free - is this series of videos which the head coach did with the 'Art of manliness' website : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AObAU-EcYE (You can find the other videos on the bench press, squat etc. from this one)

Starting Strength is not a perfect program and has its detractors, but as with any product there is something advantageous about being able to point someone to a product that has been used by many people before with decent success, and which has a lot of 'support' available for it, various FAQ, trouble-shooting advice online etc. There is only one other novice program I would recommend over it (Greyskull LP) and it is much more niche to get a grip on.

There are also a great many good programs like 5/3/1 which are commonly recommended, but I would suggest that they are not truly novice programs, for reasons that are outside of the scope of this thread.

Patsy167 · 12-01-2022 12:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456548#Comment_118456548

Good on you. A few coaching sessions to get started with Strength training is always recommended. Watching the instructional videos are great but may give a false sense of competency and you don't get the benefit of receiving feedback on how your body is performing the movement.

There's any number of resources online to help get started. The one site I always come back to is https://ss.fitness/

It covers everything in one place with useful calculators and programmes.

Fat and 43!

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