New + Diet help

[joshuan90]

Hey, im pretty new here. Like most people I lurked a little, and decided to join up. Im trying to lose weight, but thought it would be better to gain some muscle first since it should make that easier. Anyone got any suggestions on my meal plan?

Breakfast: Oatmeal with whey protein or just a banana + whey protein shake [2 hours before pre-workout meal]

Pre-workout: Oatmeal with apple. Whey protein + skim milk. [1.5 hours before workout]

Post-workout: whey protein + (large) frozen banana shake.

Dinner: 2-3 pieces of Breast Chicken + spinach + broccoli [2 hours after pre-workout]
OR
Steak + spinach + broccoli.

Snack: Oat Whey Protein Pancakes [2 hours after dinner]
Snack 2: Salad? (maybe another suggestion here?)

Before Bed Snack: Casein + Water and some spinach or broccoli [15-90 minutes before bed]

[Scrumhalf]

Too much oatmeal. Too little of anything else. Your diet is currently is pretty haphazard. Seriously, this is going to need a lot of work.

How old are you? Height, weight? You need to know how many calories you burn before you can put together a diet plan.

[joshuan90]

ok, thanks for the quick response. I'm 20. I work out from home for about 1-2 hours tops. Used to go gym for 2 hours but found a lack in time/money. Weight training on monday, wednesday, friday. I want to start jogging or swimming again on tuesday, thursday and saturday, with sunday off, but im a bit worried about the rest period from this. I'm a university student/swimming teacher so besides when i'm out or working out i'm just sitting around. My height is 5'9. Weight is 80kg.

I thought that was too much oatmeal, theres too much information on the net for me to intake it all, thats how i ended up with that. Thanks again for the quick response.


Edit: Oh a quick question. I hear pasta is good as a pre-workout meal. Is it ok to eat this if i dont want to put on any fat?

[Bouncer]

start out with 5 meals. you dont need 6. cut the pre workout meal and just use the first meal as the pre workout meal.

you said, "you are trying to loose weight" which tells me are holding to much fat. its a mistake to try and "get big" when you are holding to much fat.

meal 1 is fine how you have it.

PWO meal is fine.

meal 3 should be protein and carbs like chicken and rice.

meal 4 something like fish or steak with some rice and a salad.

meal 5 ceasin shake

[joshuan90]

ok, sounds good to me. How much rice should I be eatting on meals 3/4? Also is brown or white better? Also as far as meat goes ive always thought of chicken, steak and fish as pretty much interchangeable (steak has more fat so at most once a week, and fish is good for omega 3). Is that correct? Also do i take too much whey protein? I cut back on rice since its pretty high in carbohydrates, (same for pasta). Is it ok to eat these if my goal is losing weight?

Edit: I only really wanted to gain muscle to increase my metabolism, I was guessing it probably wouldn't show much besides on my arms and chest possibly.

[Bouncer]

about a cup of rice. i use white but brown has more fiber etc..

na, you dont take any more whey then me, your fine.

chicken should be your main source, steak and fish here and there to change it up.

[joshuan90]

ok, thanks for the help. I was going to have chicken on my off days and steak/fish on my workout days (though I forgot about fish when writing my plan up lol). Would it be better to have chicken on workout days? Also is pasta alright?

[Bouncer]

ok, thanks for the help. I was going to have chicken on my off days and steak/fish on my workout days (though I forgot about fish when writing my plan up lol). Would it be better to have chicken on workout days? Also is pasta alright?

either or, doesnt matter workout days or not.

pasta is fine but i find that pasta fills you up and then your hungry again an hour later.

[joshuan90]

ok, thanks alot for the help. I wasnt sure whether I should have meat besides my main meals, silly i know, when i think about it theres nothing wrong with having it more then once a day lol.

[Scrumhalf]

What's your current height and weight? Like I mentioned earlier, the first thing you need to figure out is how many calories your body is consuming.

[joshuan90]

im 5'9 and 80kg

[Scrumhalf]

OK.. 5'9", 175lbs, 20 years old.

Using a rule of thumb of 15 kcal/lb of bodyweight, I come up with a daily caloric expenditure of about 2600 kcal.

Using a BMR-type calculation and considering moderate exercise, I come up with 2800 kcal.

Let's just split it in half and call it 2700kcal as your daily caloric expenditure.


I would shoot for 30% of your calories coming from carbs, 50% from protein and 20% from fat.

I would also run a deficit of about 700 kcal, so target of 2000 kcal daily intake

This means that daily, you consume about 250g of protein, 150g of carbs and 45g of fats.

You'll be taking in 1.4 g of protein per lb of bodyweight which is about right.

To do this obviously you need to keep track of what you eat and do some planning. Use a site like fitday.com to estimate the calories in what you eat. A good kitchen scale for measuring things is your friend. It will take you a week or two to figure all this out.

Work out 3 days a week 2 days upper body, 1 day for legs. 2 or 3 days of cardio (45 minutes to 1 hour) in the morning, preferably as soon as you wake up, i.e. fasted but if you cannot, no big deal. It should be low impact - run, elliptical, bike, doesn't matter - just get your heart rate up a bit to where you can still hold a conversation.

1 day of rest on the weekend. Eat at maintenance, i.e. about 2700 kcal. Increase carbs to 50% on this day, 30% carbs, keep fat at 20%. This will reset your fat metabolism and keep you sane.

Do this for 2 months. You'll see results. Don't get impatient. This takes time but it will work.

Focus and work out hard in the gym - no need to spend 2 hours there. 1 hour or 75 minutes should be more than enough for just about anyone.

[joshuan90]

ok, thanks alot ^^ thats alot of information to take in, il try making a plan following your guidelines and the bouncers and il post it back up here. One thing i had trouble with calculating was the nutrition from meat that i get at the butchers. It would be ideal to get supermarket meat (since i can see whats in it), but the cost difference is a bit much for me right now. I'll cut back on my weight training a bit to fit 1 hour or so. It probably will take me awhile to figure all this out, but this is a great help. Thanks both of you.

[Bouncer]

Meat and chicken etc.. Is easy.

Butcher sells certain cuts of meat. Just go to calorieking.com etc.. to find how many cals, protein, fat etc.. is in it. You just need a food scale.