What is your diet and exercise routine?

[GW2lacky]

This is not a debate on what is better as different diets work for different people...lets all be grown up enough to recognize that. I would like to hear what works for you, what your goals are (or have been in the past), the results, and what kind of exercises you do.

For me:
Diet:
Keep carbs @ <15g/day
Protein @ >150g/day
Fat...don't keep track
Water @ 2 liters/day (I slack on this sometimes as the taste of water all day, every day just gets....old)

Exercise:
3x a week kettlebell training, various exercises
5x a week...Commercial Drills (Watch TV for a couple hours, do 10-20 pushups and situps at each commercial break).
3x a week jogging (I am a very weak runner...I just joined a local trail running group so I hope to improve on it in the coming months).

Result:
I do everything from home as I don't care too much for gyms. I'm 6'2", 34 years old...I started at 250lbs eating like absolute shit and I've lost roughly 30 pounds overall in two months...not sure how much I've gained in muscle at all but I'm definitely much, much stronger than I was 90 days ago and have almost endless energy. Double chin is gone and I can start to see what may be ab muscles....I also never get hungry anymore.

I want to switch over to a piscatarian diet once I hit my goal weight as I really like fish/shellfish much more than land animals (I will probably never eat beef again once I hit my goal weight/body fat percentage). My weight loss has slowed which may be because of the 100% whey protein shakes I'm taking every day...I'm not sure tho.

[fishface]

Currently doing Convict Conditioning whilst I look for work (no money for a gym membership or equipment) so:

Mon: Pushups, Leg Raises
Wed: Pullups, Squats
Friday: Handstand Pushups, Bridges

Reps per set varies for the exercise, I'll do as many sets I can till my form starts to fail. Also for those not familiar with CC the exercises I've listed are categories split into 10 progression stages, which is helpful as I'm nowhere near able to do an actual pushup.

I also bike 64 miles a week on average, thanks to living 8 miles away from the city.

As for diet I just try to get a lot of protein and veg whilst eating less than 100g of carbs and avoiding all grains completely.

In regards to your weight loss, you should make sure you're eating 500 calories below maintenance. It's clear you're on a similar diet to a friend of mine. He was always going on about how he could eat as much as he'd like and he'd still lose weight because he wasn't eating carbs. In truth the reason why it was so successful was because meat is so satiating. Whilst he thought he was eating a huge amount of food he wasn't going past maintenance. As he's lost weight he's been eating closer and closer to maintenance and his weight loss has started to plateau.

[Romeo83x]

I wouldn't recommend running for anyone over 190lbs. It damages your knees. Bike or swim until then.

[jbhasban]

I wouldn't recommend running for anyone over 190lbs. It damages your knees. Bike or swim until then.

I wouldn't recommend giving advice to anyone if you know so little about exercise science.

I lift 4 days a week and run 3-6 miles every day... and I weigh 180 at 5'9" at around 6-8% body fat. I have absolutely no joint problems. As for diet... I eat healthy and do not count calories.

I started at 300 lbs.

When I was losing weight, I would eat around 1500 calories on an intermittent fasting diet. Lost around 10 lbs a month like that. Also hated life.

[Romeo83x]

I wouldn't recommend giving advice to anyone if you know so little about exercise science.

I lift 4 days a week and run 3-6 miles every day... and I weigh 180 at 5'9" at around 6-8% body fat. I have absolutely no joint problems. As for diet... I eat healthy and do not count calories.

I started at 300 lbs.

When I was losing weight, I would eat around 1500 calories on an intermittent fasting diet. Lost around 10 lbs a month like that. Also hated life.

I might not know everything about exercising, but I do know more about knee anatomy, knee surgery and knee prosthesis than everyone in this forum combined.

I would not recommend running for anyone over 190lbs. It damages your knees. Bike or swim instead.

[Projali]

I might not know everything about exercising, but I do know more about knee anatomy, knee surgery and knee prosthesis than everyone in this forum combined.

I would not recommend running for anyone over 190lbs. It damages your knees. Bike or swim instead.

Never know, there might be an orthopedic surgeon on here...

[kleinlax21]

I'm 20 years old, 175 lbs., and 6'2".

I can eat whatever I want and I do not gain fat, no matter how much I eat. Every meal I eat 'till I'm full, and I average ~2.5-3k calories per day. I don't worry too much about what I eat. I eat mostly of fast food and frozen foods (college diet ftw), and I struggle to maintain the small amount of fat on my body. For instance, if I skip my usual midnight meal, I will wake up weighing 2-3 pounds less than the previous night. If I have to skip a meal due to studies/whatever, I have to make it up later in the day. With that being said, I fully expect this to become a non-viable diet sometime within the next few years. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts

I bike about 30-40 miles/week, and because I had an ACL graft 2 years ago, I can't run for long distances without my bum leg getting sore. I lift weights 3 times a week in order to maintain a healthy muscular structure. I didn't think about this earlier, but I walk about 2+ miles per day, 5 times per week walking to and from my campus.


---------- Post added 2012-05-08 at 06:03 PM ----------

I might not know everything about exercising, but I do know more about knee anatomy, knee surgery and knee prosthesis than everyone in this forum combined.

I would not recommend running for anyone over 190lbs. It damages your knees. Bike or swim instead.

Yeah, my dad has knee problems because he has run multiple miles/day for most of his life. Running places so much more impact on your knees, which explains why I can bike forever with an ACL surgery at ~95% recovered, yet I can barely run for a mile before my knee starts to become a major pain.

[Deleted]

For me my diet consists of a variety - I don't eat loads of cakes and junk food but I'm not over the top on veg either. I was vegetarian for a long time beacuse my mum was but I think that in some ways it's bad as its hard to compensate for what you don't get from no meat. I haven't put on any weight as a result of eating meat but I don't put on much weight as it is no matter what I eat really. I've been a size 8/10 for as long as I have been old enough to get into adult clothes so I've never been on a diet to loose weight.

In terms of fitness, I done martial arts classes since the age of 7, rougly 3 classes a week, sometimes more. I had to stop when I went to uni and I could feel myself getting more and more unfit. I went to the gym at uni but I found it hard as I didn't know anyone there and I had noone to go with so that didn't last long. I now do pole fitness which is something that I really enjoy so I find it easy to attend. I also don't go to get fit; I more go because I want to be good at it which is really a big motivator and I am hoping to get a pole at home to practice more. So I think the key (at least for me) is not to choose fitness just to get fit but also to make sure that it is something you really enjoy so you don't even notice how much of a work out you have really done as sometimes its easy to feel that you aren't making progress.

[Deleted]

I'm around 5'9" and 74 KG.

I eat no refined sugar is I can avoid it (sweetener ftw). Porridge and coffee every morning, protein shake for lunch, whatever I want for dinner. And by "whatever" I mean healthy food, e.g. lean meats and greens.

I get one day off a week and usually go out to dinner with my fiance. Lost around 8 lbs of fat, gained around 3-5 lbs in muscle over around 9 weeks. Just getting back into shape honestly, going to plateau soon enough :/

[Deleted]

Ok I have a home gym that I use 99.9% of the time and when I'm on the road I throw my gymnast rings and a kettlebell in the van.

My home gym is:

a knackered squat rack w/ pullup bar, gymnast rings, tractor tyre, sledgehammer, barbell, 150kg plates, some old sandbags of various weights, 26 & 32kg KBs, weighted vest and a skipping rope.

Diet: Paleo. If man made it, I try to avoid it. Lots of good quality protein: Meats, Eggs, Fish, nuts, pulses, vegetables, fruits.
Supplements: Cod Liver Oil, Flaxseed Oil, BCAAs, L-Carnatine and Whey Protein.
Durability: Foam-rolling, dynamic stretching and yoga
Strength: 3 sessions p/week strength program by Joe Defranco
Conditioning: 3 / 4 Crossfit WODs p/week.
Cardiovascular: 3 runs per week: Sprint session, speed session, endurance session.

Goals: Functional strength, athleticism and injury-proofing. Not interested in asthetics.

I rarely do isolation exercises, instead focussing on the big compound movements supersetted/trisetted with high-rep bodyweight movements.

Squats, Cleans, Presses, Jerks, Snatches, Deadlifts, Pullups, Chinups, Thrusters, Muscleups, Ropeclimbs involved in every workout.

I'm currently 5'11" and 185lbs (82kg) - weight gain/loss is irrelevant I eat to gain (+500cal) but that's to facilitate strength gains not bulk up.

[GW2lacky]

I might not know everything about exercising, but I do know more about knee anatomy, knee surgery and knee prosthesis than everyone in this forum combined.

I would not recommend running for anyone over 190lbs. It damages your knees. Bike or swim instead.

Thanks for the heads up. I have a new cyclocross bike I'd be more than happy to give more attention to instead. My doctor had suggested jogging/running for weight loss but he may not have been taking my extra 50 pounds I was carrying around into account.

Diet: Paleo. If man made it, I try to avoid it. Lots of good quality protein: Meats, Eggs, Fish, nuts, pulses, vegetables, fruits.
Supplements: Cod Liver Oil, Flaxseed Oil, BCAAs, L-Carnatine and Whey Protein.
Durability: Foam-rolling, dynamic stretching and yoga
Strength: 3 sessions p/week strength program by Joe Defranco
Conditioning: 3 / 4 Crossfit WODs p/week.
Cardiovascular: 3 runs per week: Sprint session, speed session, endurance session.

Goals: Functional strength, athleticism and injury-proofing. Not interested in asthetics.

Wow...I hope to be at your level someday. I'm kind of supplement-ignorant other than the absolute basics like whey protein...but trying to learn as I go.

Also, thanks for all the responses so far. I sat down with a new doctor a few months back and he laid it out as, "Scott, you are fat. If this is what you feel like at 34 imagine what life is going to be like at 44...or 54." Dunno why, but it lit a fire under my ass like nothing ever has. I knew I wasn't healthy and something needed to change, but hearing it that direct from my doc hit a very central nerve with me. I figured I could be offended by his comment or do something about it.

[Rdx]

Keep carbs @ <15g/day
Protein @ >150g/day
Fat...don't keep track
Water @ 2 liters/day (I slack on this sometimes as the taste of water all day, every day just gets....old)

Im confused. Why do you have so little carbs and dont track fat. Seems counter intuitive to me. Furthermore what are you eating to get less than 15g of carbs a day....
1 serve of raw carrots has 12g carbs
1 medium sized apple has 25g of carbs.
Im guessing you dont drink Coke in a can has about 39g of carbs

Unless your just drinking protein shakes but even then thats stupid. I dont mean to flame you but if thats what you are doing its just plain silly. All that will happen is the excess protein you take in will be used for glyogensis.....

If this is working for you thats cool but I am sure you could get a lot better results with proper nutrition and workouts.

One thing I do like about your setup is your commercial drills. Good work on changing something that you love to something that has some health benefit as well...

[Romeo83x]

Im confused. Why do you have so little carbs and dont track fat. Seems counter intuitive to me. Furthermore what are you eating to get less than 15g of carbs a day....
1 serve of raw carrots has 12g carbs
1 medium sized apple has 25g of carbs.
Im guessing you dont drink Coke in a can has about 39g of carbs

Unless your just drinking protein shakes but even then thats stupid. I dont mean to flame you but if thats what you are doing its just plain silly. All that will happen is the excess protein you take in will be used for glyogensis.....

If this is working for you thats cool but I am sure you could get a lot better results with proper nutrition and workouts.

One thing I do like about your setup is your commercial drills. Good work on changing something that you love to something that has some health benefit as well...

His diet is legit, look up "high fat low carb" on google if you want to know more. It's basically eating the way human body was biologically designed to eat and did eat for 2 million years, before agriculture was invented and refined carb heavy foods came into picture (last 10000 years).

Using fat triglycerides and ketones as an energy source instead of carbohydrates and glucose is a scientifically solid and proven efficient way of eating.

[Rdx]

Diet:
Liquids: water only
Carbs moderated and from good wholesome sources such as fruit, veg etc
Try stay away from highly processed foods
Good amount of lean meats, smoked salmon, grilled fish, grilled chicken etc
Fats. I dont put a celling on them but I do pay attention to the types. mono and poly I dont mind but try avoid sat and trans fats.

Exercise:
-3 days a week resistance training in gym.
For example other day did: Shoulders, Abs and forearms. 2 min rest periods for shoulders and forearms. 5 min rest between back to back exercises on same muscle group. This took 2:30 hours to do all up.
Yesterday did chest and triceps. Total workout time 2:00 hours. Same deal with rest.

-2 days a week HIIT and the other 2 days LISS

[Deleted]

His diet is legit, look up "high fat low carb" on google if you want to know more. It's basically eating the way human body was biologically designed to eat and did eat for 2 million years, before agriculture was invented and refined carb heavy foods came into picture (last 10000 years).

Using fat triglycerides and ketones as an energy source instead of carbohydrates and glucose is a scientifically solid and proven efficient way of eating.

2 million years ago eh? That's interesting, considering homo sapien is only 200,000 years old.

[Kuniku]

I need to improve my diet, i've taken a lot of the crap and small bits out, so I'm eating more regularly.

up until next week i'm training jujutsu 5 times a week (europeans are a week on saturday)

once thats out of the way I'll be training jujutsu 2-3 times a week until september and a definate 3 times a week after that, and once I have free'd a night up from jujutsu I'm going to start climbing again.

Add that to cycling to and from work when the weather is nice, I'm hoping I'll lose a fair bit of weight over the summer.

Later this year I may well be doing my first cage fight, and I'd like to get down to LHW for that, which as of last night is a 8KG drop xD

[Romeo83x]

2 million years ago eh? That's interesting, considering homo sapien is only 200,000 years old.

Homo habilis (the first to build tools out of sticks and stones) lived 2.5 million years ago and they ate exactly the same food as homo sapiens 200k years ago.

High Fat, Low Carb is recommended by the Swedish institute of health as the way to go for weightloss. It is also the ONLY diet that allows for fat loss and muscle gain at the same time.

But hey.. I'm sure you're smarter than the Stockholm university human biochemistry department. I mean what do they know, amirite ?

Have some science free of charge, it's on me:


Shai I, et al. Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, mediterranean, or low-fat diet. N Engl J Med 2008;359(3);229–41.
Gardner CD, et al. Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and learn Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women. The a to z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trial. JAMA. 2007;297:969–977.
Brehm BJ, et al. A Randomized Trial Comparing a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet and a Calorie-Restricted Low Fat Diet on Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2003;88:1617–1623.
Samaha FF, et al. A Low-Carbohydrate as Compared with a Low-Fat Diet in Severe Obesity. N Engl J Med 2003;348:2074–81.
Sondike SB, et al. Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor in overweight adolescents. J Pediatr. 2003 Mar;142(3):253–8.
Aude YW, et al. The National Cholesterol Education Program Diet vs a Diet Lower in Carbohydrates and Higher in Protein and Monounsaturated Fat. A Randomized Trial. Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:2141–2146.
Volek JS, et al. Comparison of energy-restricted very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets on weight loss and body composition in overweight men and women. Nutrition & Metabolism 2004, 1:13.
Yancy WS Jr, et al. A Low-Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet versus a Low-Fat Diet To Treat Obesity and Hyperlipidemia. A Randomized, Controlled Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2004;140:769–777.
Nichols-Richardsson SM, et al. Perceived Hunger Is Lower and Weight Loss Is Greater in Overweight Premenopausal Women Consuming a Low-Carbohydrate/High- Protein vs High-Carbohydrate/Low-Fat Diet. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005;105:1433–1437.
Krebs NF, et al. Efficacy and Safety of a High Protein, Low Carbohydrate Diet for Weight Loss in Severely Obese Adolescents. J Pediatr 2010;157:252-8.
Summer SS, et al. Adiponectin Changes in Relation to the Macronutrient Composition of a Weight-Loss Diet. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Mar 31. [Epub ahead of print]
Halyburton AK, et al. Low- and high-carbohydrate weight-loss diets have similar effects on mood but not cognitive performance. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;86:580–7.
Dyson PA, et al. A low-carbohydrate diet is more effective in reducing body weight than healthy eating in both diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Diabet Med. 2007 Dec;24(12):1430-5.
Keogh JB, et al. Effects of weight loss from a very-low-carbohydrate diet on endothelial function and markers of cardiovascular disease risk in subjects with abdominal obesity. Am J Clin Nutr 2008;87:567–76.
Volek JS, et al. Carbohydrate Restriction has a More Favorable Impact on the Metabolic Syndrome than a Low Fat Diet. Lipids 2009;44:297–309.
Daly ME, et al. Short-term effects of severe dietary carbohydrate-restriction advice in Type 2 diabetes–a randomized controlled trial. Diabet Med. 2006 Jan;23(1):15–20.
Westman EC, et al. The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low- glycemic index diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Nutr. Metab (Lond.)2008 Dec 19;5:36.

[handsdown]

Diet: Internment fasting (Leangains)
Paleo-friendly foods 95% of the time (sometimes I have white rice post work out and I do consume BCAAs pre-workout since I train fasted)
Moderate-high carb, moderate protein (1g/lb) and low fat weight lifting days
Low carb, moderate protein (1g/lb), and high fat on rest days


Exercise: Weight lift 3x a week (deadlift/bench press/squat with usually 2 assistance exercises for each main lift that day + opposite push/pull movement)
Do LISS (long duration, steady state) cardio on at least 2 of my off days. During the summer I usually do my favourite moderate-higher intensity cardio activities like hiking, tennis or biking in place of LISS some days. I want to learn how to ice skate (yes, I am from Canada and don't know how ... shush) or snowboard to have something to do in the winter.

Strength has increased quite a bit. Started late February - early March. I admit I need to be drinking more water :/ Definitely a weak spot in my diet. I drink 4-5 cups of herbal tea a day but don't count that towards my water count c_c

[Rdx]

Exercise: Weight lift 3x a week (deadlift/bench press/squat with usually 2 assistance exercises for each main lift that day + opposite push/pull movement)
Do LISS (long duration, steady state) cardio on at least 2 of my off days. During the summer I usually do my favourite moderate-higher intensity cardio activities like hiking, tennis or biking in place of LISS some days. I want to learn how to ice skate (yes, I am from Canada and don't know how ... shush) or snowboard to have something to do in the winter.

We sound very similar -_- to the point that I have recently started taking lessons to ice skate. Although Im Australian so I have a excuse :P

[Deleted]

I drink water and milk (anywhere from half a liter to 2-3 liters a day) and 1 glass of orange juice/day
I eat oatmeal with bananas for breakfeast
then I eat at least half a package of Rye Bread I believe it's called (not sure if there's a better translation - rugbread?)
for dinner I try to get meat and potatoes as often as I can, but also Eggs, spaghetti/rice from time to time.
then I eat whey protein or drink it rather, after each workout session, that being the gym or just running.

I workout three times a week, monday, wednesday & friday, then try to get running tuesday, thursday & saturday.
my workouts at the gym are 45-60minutes each. rather intensive so to speak (my breaks between reps consists of the time it takes me to move from 1 exercise to another in my cycle)

oh and if it has any relevance I'm 18 and have been working out since I was 16 with a couple of breaks inbetween lasting a total of probably 8 months. I used to be rather skinny - and while I'm not as big as I'd like to be yet I have definitely been able to tell the difference from when I started till the day today. both in size, but definitely also in strength.