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This may be quite a long post, so ye hath been warned. (I had to read the Tempest lately, so go easy on me 
Approximately 3 1/2 weeks ago I changed my eating patterns entirely and began to work out. In that time I have gone from 245 lbs to 225lbs. I am approximately 6-2 and have a rather large build for my waist and a barrel for a natural chest. I, personally, consider these to be complications. The look I want will require me to build more muscle on these areas than if I had a smaller build. I am looking to both drop the excess fat and build muscle in the proper areas. I have no ambitions to compete, I simply want the body of a male model with a fair bit more muscle. (I am well aware this will take time no matter what I do, and my will should be good for this so long as I see continued progress) For about 10 days I have been browsing the forums looking for tips and tricks and find myself at a loss in many areas. My diet needs some serious help. I've passed out once and been very weak at other times. This could have been due to falling well short on calories or on sodium. Either is possible since I get very little in the way of sodium in a day, but my problem may have been not being able to eat for an extended period time on the day prior.
My diet has varied greatly since I began and more information has come my way from either this forum or a couple of friends. The greatest help so far has come from someone who was a PT for 15 years and placed 3rd in the Golden Gate Classic back in 91'. While she has been a great help so far, I don't like to trouble her too much.
It will be difficult to detail much of what I have eaten over this time, so I will do my best for what I eat now. By my calculations I should be eating around 2250 calories per day. However, I understand I need a calories deficit to lose weight, so I am running between 500-1000 calorie deficit daily so far.
Cardio - within minutes of getting up, I don't eat till afterwards. Generally I will have a small piece of meat(Turkey,Chicken or Steak - this can vary calorie wise from 170-270 calories). Sometimes I will supplement this with an EAS shake depending on how many calories I got from the meat.
The rest of the day I simply try to eat every 2-3 hours, small portions (using the "hand size" method) and this can vary from a coulple of boiled eggs, a piece of meat to a shake and, as a recent addition, a small bag of almonds (170-240 calories).
I recently added the almonds and have thrown a tuna fish salad mix in to replace some of the meat. (I generally make this with 2 cans of tuna, 2 tablespoons of Miracle Whip and 1/4 cup of cheese). This makes 2 meals. My understanding is that the almonds and the fish oil help digestion in one case and block the absorbtion of fat in the other.
For dinner it's more protein and a salad (likely) with some form of hard cheese and some kind of zero calories dressing. (Malt vinegar or just some pepper and salt). At night I will have either a sour apple or some for of other carb. This has helped shut my body down and I was told that it would produce "short-term" fat cells which I would burn off with the cardio in the morning, and my body would then go after other fat cells when it was done with these (mid-term and long-term fat cells).
That has essentially been my diet for going on 4 weeks now. While I monitor calories fairly closely, the ratio's for proteins/fats/carbs is something that has eluded me. That is, the proper ratio for what I am doing. I do not think a "cutting" or "bulking" diet is quite what I need at the moment. I am still building muscle and dropping fat.
I workout nearly everyday with weights. My body has responded fairly well to this. My curls have probably doubled, my tricep weights have nearly tripled and I am adding a good 2 pushups a day. Please note that I did not start with a full body workout, exercises have been added weekly to hit areas I wasn't working before. I have halted weight - leg work until such time as they are strong enough and conditioned enough to handle 20 minutes of cycling every morning.
I can get a fair bit more detailed on my workouts, but they are not my major concern currently. My diet is. There are problems here I need to iron out and I desperately need to get far more specific in laying it out. There is so much information out there, much of it conflicting when talking carbs, fats, "cheat days" or "cheat meals" to shock your system. I must say I find it all rather overwhelming at this point. I've read so much conflicting information that.. I just need to be pointed in the right direction more than anything.
Thanks in advance for anyone who helps. My body has responded very well, overall, to what I've been doing, but it's obvious I have some holes and need to layout something far more specific.
Approximately 3 1/2 weeks ago I changed my eating patterns entirely and began to work out. In that time I have gone from 245 lbs to 225lbs. I am approximately 6-2 and have a rather large build for my waist and a barrel for a natural chest. I, personally, consider these to be complications. The look I want will require me to build more muscle on these areas than if I had a smaller build. I am looking to both drop the excess fat and build muscle in the proper areas. I have no ambitions to compete, I simply want the body of a male model with a fair bit more muscle. (I am well aware this will take time no matter what I do, and my will should be good for this so long as I see continued progress) For about 10 days I have been browsing the forums looking for tips and tricks and find myself at a loss in many areas. My diet needs some serious help. I've passed out once and been very weak at other times. This could have been due to falling well short on calories or on sodium. Either is possible since I get very little in the way of sodium in a day, but my problem may have been not being able to eat for an extended period time on the day prior.
My diet has varied greatly since I began and more information has come my way from either this forum or a couple of friends. The greatest help so far has come from someone who was a PT for 15 years and placed 3rd in the Golden Gate Classic back in 91'. While she has been a great help so far, I don't like to trouble her too much.
It will be difficult to detail much of what I have eaten over this time, so I will do my best for what I eat now. By my calculations I should be eating around 2250 calories per day. However, I understand I need a calories deficit to lose weight, so I am running between 500-1000 calorie deficit daily so far.
Cardio - within minutes of getting up, I don't eat till afterwards. Generally I will have a small piece of meat(Turkey,Chicken or Steak - this can vary calorie wise from 170-270 calories). Sometimes I will supplement this with an EAS shake depending on how many calories I got from the meat.
The rest of the day I simply try to eat every 2-3 hours, small portions (using the "hand size" method) and this can vary from a coulple of boiled eggs, a piece of meat to a shake and, as a recent addition, a small bag of almonds (170-240 calories).
I recently added the almonds and have thrown a tuna fish salad mix in to replace some of the meat. (I generally make this with 2 cans of tuna, 2 tablespoons of Miracle Whip and 1/4 cup of cheese). This makes 2 meals. My understanding is that the almonds and the fish oil help digestion in one case and block the absorbtion of fat in the other.
For dinner it's more protein and a salad (likely) with some form of hard cheese and some kind of zero calories dressing. (Malt vinegar or just some pepper and salt). At night I will have either a sour apple or some for of other carb. This has helped shut my body down and I was told that it would produce "short-term" fat cells which I would burn off with the cardio in the morning, and my body would then go after other fat cells when it was done with these (mid-term and long-term fat cells).
That has essentially been my diet for going on 4 weeks now. While I monitor calories fairly closely, the ratio's for proteins/fats/carbs is something that has eluded me. That is, the proper ratio for what I am doing. I do not think a "cutting" or "bulking" diet is quite what I need at the moment. I am still building muscle and dropping fat.
I workout nearly everyday with weights. My body has responded fairly well to this. My curls have probably doubled, my tricep weights have nearly tripled and I am adding a good 2 pushups a day. Please note that I did not start with a full body workout, exercises have been added weekly to hit areas I wasn't working before. I have halted weight - leg work until such time as they are strong enough and conditioned enough to handle 20 minutes of cycling every morning.
I can get a fair bit more detailed on my workouts, but they are not my major concern currently. My diet is. There are problems here I need to iron out and I desperately need to get far more specific in laying it out. There is so much information out there, much of it conflicting when talking carbs, fats, "cheat days" or "cheat meals" to shock your system. I must say I find it all rather overwhelming at this point. I've read so much conflicting information that.. I just need to be pointed in the right direction more than anything.
Thanks in advance for anyone who helps. My body has responded very well, overall, to what I've been doing, but it's obvious I have some holes and need to layout something far more specific.
