First I'd like to say hi, a friend recomended this site to me and I have to say it's a real gold mine. A liitle about me, i'm 6'3" and currentley 16st11lb down from 17st7Lb, I joined a local gym last year and started out pretty well, lost some wight and really started to notice some changes in body shape from the weights I was doing over the 4 month period I was going for, however the instructor I got on well with left and various other things happened and my gym going fizzled out. This year in march I joined a new gym, up until the last month or so I haven't really been commited but have more recentley started to get more focused, I have started to eat breakfast religiously, cut out booze (only the last couple of weeks, I was drinking most nights and usually quite heavy at the weekend) and started eating loads more fruit and veg, also cut red meat down to about once a week or so. In the gym I have mainly been doing cardio, usually 3 times a week, consisting of spinning twice a week and a cross training session, I really want to add in some weights in to this now though to get some shape.
My aims are to basically get rid of my beer belly, get a generally good level of fitness and
build some muscle for a nice body shape, instead of the slightly wobbly one I have at the moment, partly due to the fact i'm getting married in september and want to look good when we go to Australia next year for our belated honeymoon.
I have had a good look over the beginner section on here and really like the look of cashmans workout routine and plan to try that out startnig tonight, diet however is something i'm totally confused with, personally I don't think I eat badly but i'm sure people on here will tell me otherwise, these to subjects are where I was hopnig to get some advice!!

Breakfast, now this is really all new to me but I think I have found one that I like, this morning I had 2 weetabix with some low fat pro biotic natural yoghurt and some chopped up strawberries.

Lunch, usually a sandwich, turkey and stuffing with salad on granary, a cuople of apples and some pineapple, washed down with a fruit smoothie. somethimes I substitute the sandwich with a salad bowl, I have the usual lettuce cucumber and tomato, then add chick peas, pasta, potato salad in low fat mayo, chicken, boiled egg, carrot and cheese.

Dinner, normally something with salad and cous cous, last night for instance was Turkey fried off in a teaspoon of olive oil, quite often we will have prawns or mackrel or some other kind of fish.

I don't tend to snack, if I do it's normally an apple or some brazil nuts, i never eat crisps, I can't stand them!!!

So how does that sound, any good or pi55 poor??? another coulple of things I would like to clear up, really about what times I should be eating, like most people work is plays a major factor in when I can get to the gym, unfortunatley some nights this means eating at 9pm, is this a problem??? I mean eating late and then going to bed say an hour and a half later, I understand working out in the morning is beneficial, I just can't do this, I already get up at 5:45am and have to drop my other half at the train station by 6:45, then I have a 40 min drive to work, it's a nightmare!!!!!!

Anyway, thats about it, hopefully soon i'll have some good news to report back with instead of lots of questions.

Cheers

Steve

totally confused with, personally I don't think I eat badly but i'm sure people on here will tell me otherwise, these to subjects are where I was hopnig to get some advice!!

My assumption: you can gain muscle and lose fat as you're a beginner.

If cashmans is squat/deadlift focused and you cover your upper body then that's fine.

You are just starting out mate, so my advice would be to keep that diet and then adjust accorrding to your results. i would suggest you make your meals smaller in order to lower calories. in fact i think you should lower your calories, not by too much though. cut that fruit smoothie out, and have a small meal between lunch and dinner and then makel dinner smaller.

add something like 2 tables of flaxseed oil to one of your meals for some more good fats. do some cardio too. SSCV is good.

Hi, thanks for the reply, are you saying simply reduce portion sizes to reduce calories but keep to my current diet, minus the smoothie. At the moment I do 2 45 min cardio sessions per week, should I be doing more than this.

Cheers

You're diet's ok for a beginner.
You have'nt indicated portion size. I might be tempted to add the other meal to lower overall calorific consumption.

i would have thought if you just want to look better, the biggest factor will be getting leaner. Depends on intensity regarding cardio. And starting from zero, means you will be able to put muscle on too to look muscular.

I would do some low instensity CV unfuelled (in the morning before you eat), say 3-4 times a week. And continue to add the weight sessions in. Consure most of the carbs in the 2 hours after you workout too.

AM workouts are just not possible for me during the week due to work, not a problem at the weekend though.

Portion wise, breakfast is 2 weetabix, 1 banana or handful of strawberries and about a 3rd of a large pot of natural low fat yoghurt.

Snack is a handful of brazil nuts or an apple/banana

Lunch is a sandwich, 2-3 slices of turkey and salad or sometimes a salad, small handful of lettuce, a tomato, 3-4 slices cucumber, potato salad with about 3-4 salad potatoes and low fat mayo, small handful of raw carrot, 3-4 tablespoons of chick peas, 1 boiled egg, 1 chicken breast. Follow this up with an apple.

just to give you some idea, Dinner, depends what I have, if it's a salad it would be similar to lunch, if it's say chicken with rice then it would be one of the boil in the bag size portions of brown rice and 1 chicken breast.

Is it ok to combine cardio and weights on the same day at this stage.

Yes it is fine. Try donig cardio after you weight train to mimic your body being in a calorie starved state and in theory you will be more likely to burn fat. try it.

You've jsut repeated your self there! As i said it's light on fat, add some in like i said before.

you havent said when u work out, try having the calories afterwards, like i said. So if you train at lunch have a post workout shake, then have the meal within the hour. And u could also consider splitting the meals up and reducing calorie size.