Hello,

I have read all of the FAQs, but am still wondering if I'm doing it right (probably not). I would really appreciate it if someone could just give me a quick evaluation of my diet and exercise routine, and tell me if this looks healthy and will do me well in losing weight. I've been on this new lifestyle for 2 weeks, but it is not a drastic change (i.e. I wasn't eating junk before starting it).

I am 20 years old, 6ft 1", and I weigh 216 lbs (98kg). My exercise routine consists of 40-50 min of cycling (on a machine mind you) at an intense enough level so that my heart rate is always ~ 115-120 (for the full 40 min). I do this five days a week, but towards the end of the week, I tend to get tired and do more and more spouts of cardio (2 20 minute sessions or 4 ten minute sessions for instance) and in addition, I use a rowing machine at mid resistence level to do 100 reps 3 days a week. Is this enough exercise?

Here is my diet:

10AM - Breakfast: Shredded What + Whole milk = 440 cal
12PM - Snack: Can of tuna (in water) + 1tbsp mayo, + 1 Goodbelly drink = 160 cal
3PM - Lunch: 2 Slices of whole wheat bread + deli meat (chicken, turkey, or ham) = 380 cal
5PM - Snack: 1/2 cup apple sauce or 1 whole apple/bannana + 1 whole grain protein bar = 230 Cal
7PM - Dinner: 1 whole bag of frozen vegetables boiled (Brussel sprouts, Spinach, Peas, or Broccoli) = ~290 Cal

This is my regular diet. Sometimes my breakfast will be extremely light, (1/2 cup cottage cheese - 120 cal), but I make up for it with a heavier dinner, like a chicken breast or substantial amount of ground beef. I only drink water, in addition to the one good belly drink (which is a probiotic mix of 50 cal for digestive health). Should I be add more calories, or keep it at about this range?

Thanks for any responses.

The cardio sounds fine. I recommend adding some resistance training/weightlifting three days per week. This will rev up your metabolism around the clock.

It doesn't look like enough calories at a glance. Are you starving? I eat larger meals than that, and I eat eight meals per day. (Though granted, I'm trying to maintain my weight, not lose.)

It also doesn't look like enough vegetables and fruits overall. Choices I wouldn't make include whole milk (saturated fat), deli meat (same, and sodium), and a man-made drink, no matter how healthy they make it sound. Same goes for the protein bar. Eating real food is always the healthiest choice. And I would add beans and nuts.

Hope this helps!

Not enough protein in my opinion. get about 30g of protein per meal. that's a piece of meat a little larger than the palm of your hand or bigger than a deck of cards.

Straight off this is nowhere near enough calories for someone who weighs 216lbs and doesn’t do anything, nevermind someone who is also exercising 5 days a week. As I have already told someone else on here today, too few calories puts the body into starvation mode and actually makes losing weight harder and gaining fat easier. If you really want to get your calorie intake right for weight loss either use a good body fat analysis machine that will tell you your basal metalbolic rate (the absolute minimum amount of calories you need in a day) and your total calories for the day given the exercise you do and how active your lifestyle is. The amount of calories you should have in a day is this total minus 500.

Let’s say a person’s BMR is 1500 but because they have an active lifestyle as opposed to a very sedentary one their total calories used is 2500. A safe, effective calories intake is 2500 minus 500, which comes to 2000 and is a good 500 calories above the BMR. This will cause consistent weight loss and avoid yo-yo diets or other problems.

As for your exercise routine, try to get your heart rate a lot higher than 115-120, which is more like the warm up rate I give my clients. I would suggest a target heart rate of at least 60% of your max heart rate if you’re not fit, or if you’re already reasonably fit 70%.
To work out what this is take your age (20) from 220, which gives a max heart for you of 200. Now the easy way to work out 70% of this gives us a figure of 140, but a more effective way is to do the following.

First take your resting heart rate when you wake up naturally, in other words something like a Sunday morning where there isn’t going to be an alarm clock or anything else scaring the hell out of you. You’re only 20, so let’s say your resting heart rate is 60. Next take this figure from your max heart rate so it’s 200-60 = 140.
Now let’s say you’re going to work at 70% of your max heart rate. The next step is therefore to work out 70% of the 140 figure, which is 98, and then add your resting heart rate (60) back to this which gives us 98 + 60 = 158.
Therefore to work at 70% of your max heart rate you should be around 158.

If you find it hard to get your heart rate to 158 or struggle to keep it there, try some interval training, which is especially good for those who are not too fit or still new to the gym and don’t like prolonged exertion. If you don’t know what interval training is, basically work as hard as you can for 2 minutes, then work at about 50% effort for 4 minutes, then hard for 2 minutes etc. Repeat this process until you’ve done your 40-50 mins. The times can be changed but this would be a good one for you to try to start with.

If you have any questions or if I haven’t explained this clearly enough for you to understand just let me know.

Well done for the new lifestyle.

David.