Beginner to Exercising/Dieting. Any advice is helpful.

cpt_beemo

Junior Member
Jan 6, 2020
3
0
6
Hello everyone!

Of course I post this right after new years like some sort of "New Year New Me" dealio, LOL!

I am a 26 year old 5'9" male, 185 pounds of an ectomorphic type body style, I dont have a massive gut, but its there and I want to look toned like I used to. I was able to stay fit and active with my full time job of heavy labour, but of course I now sit at a desk for most of the day, and its starting to show. I read the pinned post in the health and fitness which was very helpful as far as the types of foods to eat. I also calculated my BMR which is 1906, and caloric needs of 2931 with a low/moderately active lifestyle. If I understand this correctly, that means I need to eat between 1906 and 2931 calories per day? If I am wrong please do correct me.

Anyway I would just like some advice on what kind of exercises I can do to trim up a bit, as well as which foods would be best to eat during this type of exercise.

Any help will do!

Thank you.
 

highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
43,910
6,277
136
 

dasherHampton

Platinum Member
Jan 19, 2018
2,543
488
96
I can certainly tell you what to avoid. I lost about 40 lbs in 2019.

1) Fast food. Don't touch any of it.

2) Bread (unfortunately that includes pizza and tacos)

3) Sugar in any form. You should consume as little as possible. For a while the only sugar I ate was in the salad dressings I used. I gave up milk shakes, which were my favorite treat.

4) Any kind of processed food. No more hot pockets.

5) fruits and fruit juices (especially). I know this is controversial but you can add fruits back in after you've lost the lbs you want to. No more fruit juices ever.

My typical daily menu was

breakfast - 3 eggs in any style, usually scrambled with ham cubes
lunch - a big chef salad. Leafy greens, ham cubes, some times sliced eggs, grated cheese, French dressing.
dinner - rotate steak, pork, chicken, and fish with a big serving of vegetables

I did eat sugar free candy to accommodate my sweet tooth. There are no guarantees, but if you stick with it for a while the weight will probably melt off.

The main exercise I did was programs on my incliner. I did one 3-4 times a week.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Muse and killster1

mike8675309

Senior member
Jul 17, 2013
507
116
116
Gotta change your diet. Eat more foods that are less calorically dense. That means no processed foods and the majority of your calories from whole plant foods.
You can't target an area of your body to lose fat from. Everybody's body is different in how it prioritizes fat loss, so to lean out diet will be your biggest change to make. Then start lifting weights. Lift heavy to build muscle. Adding muscle increases your metabolism, making it easier to lose fat.
 

cpt_beemo

Junior Member
Jan 6, 2020
3
0
6
This is all so very helpful!!!

So I went grocery shopping last night with the intention of getting myself healthy foods to eat for breakfast, lunch and supper. My biggest thing to fix is waking up with enough time to have a proper breakfast, because my breakfast usually consists of a package of instant oatmeal, a low fat yogurt and a nutri-grain bar. I would like to change that to some scrambled eggs for sure.

lunch - chicken, lettuce, onion and mozza cheese sandwich (on 12 grain bread with no sauces) and some cucumber and carrots, I also have some teriyaki chicken, rice and vegetable steamer dishes that I bought to take to work for lunch.

dinner: ranging anywhere between chicken breasts with vegetables like a salad or cooked carrots and broccoli, or lean ground beef which I would use for spaghetti with whole grain noodles. I do enjoy pork very much and will rotate that in, however I am not a seafood fan, I usually get omega-3 oils and daily vitamins to supplement that loss of nutrition.

I know this is not the HEALTHIEST stuff out there, but I think it is a drastic change to last year where I was constantly eating out. I was also diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called lichen planus, which attacks skin cells. I was advised that I should not eat past 6:30, 7:00 at the latest, so that my body can properly digest food before bed and I will wake up hungry. I was advised that doing this will help blood flow to the skin lesions to help heal them when they break out. I have a problem with late night snacking, being an enthusiast in PC gaming. So I gotta work on that.


I hope I am on the right track here, I really want to change my diet around and get back into shape.
 

dasherHampton

Platinum Member
Jan 19, 2018
2,543
488
96
I would not eat pasta until you've reached the weight you want.

Most fish recipes are too complicated. Try this simple one:

Buy a nice piece of salmon. Rinse it in cold water and pat it dry. Salt and pepper it.

Heat up some oil in a frying pan (not too hot). Slice a half lemon into two quarters.

Fry the salmon until it's cooked through, flipping as needed. After the first flip squeeze half a lemon quarter on the fish and repeat with rest of the lemon after the next flip. Toss the used up lemon in the pan.

When the salmon is adequately cooked put it on a plate and squeeze the other lemon quarter over it. Don't worry about how the skin looks; it's delicious. Timing takes a little practice but it's not hard.

Enjoy with a simple salad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: highland145

cpt_beemo

Junior Member
Jan 6, 2020
3
0
6
I would not eat pasta until you've reached the weight you want.

Most fish recipes are too complicated. Try this simple one:

Buy a nice piece of salmon. Rinse it in cold water and pat it dry. Salt and pepper it.

Heat up some oil in a frying pan (not too hot). Slice a half lemon into two quarters.

Fry the salmon until it's cooked through, flipping as needed. After the first flip squeeze half a lemon quarter on the fish and repeat with rest of the lemon after the next flip. Toss the used up lemon in the pan.

When the salmon is adequately cooked put it on a plate and squeeze the other lemon quarter over it. Don't worry about how the skin looks; it's delicious. Timing takes a little practice but it's not hard.

Enjoy with a simple salad.


I appreciate the recipe!! I will definitely give it a try, but I will warn you I am really not a fan of seafood. I really really enjoy chicken, whether its baked or in a stirfry or salad. Veggies like carrots, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli etc I really enjoy as well, so I do enjoy making stir fry.

Is anyone able to elaborate on the recommended calorie intake with mild/moderate exercise? I do walk around a lot at work, averaging 10,000 steps or more sometimes. Cant elaborate on if that burns a lot of calories.
 

CalebRockeT

Golden Member
Jul 14, 2003
1,142
13
81
Is anyone able to elaborate on the recommended calorie intake with mild/moderate exercise? I do walk around a lot at work, averaging 10,000 steps or more sometimes. Cant elaborate on if that burns a lot of calories.
Use this to find your TDEE: https://tdeecalculator.net/

After you have a TDEE estimate, you can reduce that figure by the appropriate number of calories for the targeted weekly weight loss of your choosing. Anywhere between 0.5-1% of total body weight is a reasonable goal.

If your goal ends up at losing 1 lb per week, then you would consume 500 calories less than your estimated TDEE per day. Over the course of a week's time, that would account for a 3500 calorie weekly deficit and result in ~1 lb of weight loss.

Best of luck in your fitness and nutrition journey!
 

dasherHampton

Platinum Member
Jan 19, 2018
2,543
488
96
I appreciate the recipe!! I will definitely give it a try, but I will warn you I am really not a fan of seafood. I really really enjoy chicken, whether its baked or in a stirfry or salad. Veggies like carrots, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli etc I really enjoy as well, so I do enjoy making stir fry.

Is anyone able to elaborate on the recommended calorie intake with mild/moderate exercise? I do walk around a lot at work, averaging 10,000 steps or more sometimes. Cant elaborate on if that burns a lot of calories.

You need to learn to like fish.
 

mike8675309

Senior member
Jul 17, 2013
507
116
116
Two points of view. I would avoid fish like the plague, but I understand some live on the stuff. For that chicken hit, there are great plant-based moderately processed chicken like items available that are pretty good.(https://tofurky.com/what-we-make/chickn/lightly-seasoned/) Remember though, whatever you were doing before, regardless of how good it tasted, wasn't working. You have to make big changes in your diet to make big changes in your body composition.
overnight oats with steel-cut or minimally processed oats could be your savior for a fast morning meal because you do all the prep the night before. Start considering your meals and think about prepping a number of them on days where you have more time. You can make 3 or 4 days worth of meals in one batch, helping you to avoid going with fast food simply because you don't have time to put together something good. We can't all be like Rob Baily who has a chef background and can create full meals from scratch fast.
 

deadlyapp

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2004
6,622
720
126
I'll play the middle man here on the fish. You don't need to overdo it and you don't need to not have any fish. Fish quality does matter however - sticking to wild salmon over farmed salmon, avoiding the more garbage fish (catfish, tilapia, etc), and eating them in moderation.

What is important is having good rotation of your proteins. I would definitely not recommend eating chicken for every meal, every week. Either rotate your proteins daily, or by meal.

For example - my meals for a week might look like: eggs/egg whites for breakfast, chicken for lunch, ground beef for 2nd lunch, and ground turkey for dinner. I'll maintain that for a week and then swap it around. Maybe get rid of the chicken and have fish. Maybe swap the ground beef for steak. Maybe go all egg whites. etc.

Run the TDEE calculator that was linked above. 2900 calories is too much for a mostly sedentary male at your weight. Your calorie needs for no exercise are probably in the 2200-2300 range to maintain bodyweight.

If you don't work out regularly, balance your calories to have more protein and fat than carbs. I'm talking like a 40% protein / 40% fat / 20% carbs. This will encourage better hormones and feeling full longer with the fats. Make sure you balance the fats over the day - don't eat a jar of PB for breakfast.

CHEW YOUR FOOD. I don't know how long I ate without paying attention to how well I was chewing my food but it resulted in terrible digestion and not staying full as long. There are some funny brain things that happen from chewing your food well and it makes your digestion system work in overdrive to break things down more.

Carbs are not bad, but carbs have a time and a place. If you're not actively exercising at high intensity - I'd minimize them, and the ones you have, make sure they are whole carbs however possible.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,363
8,675
136
You need to learn to like fish.
Not necessarily. I used to eat fish sometimes, nowadays rarely. I might open a can of solid meat albacore tuna maybe 3 times a year and make a tuna salad that I eat over 2 days in tuna sandwiches, with tomato, lettuce... whole wheat bread. I don't buy a piece of fish anymore. Don't miss it.