Ask the PT

L

Londoner

Active Member
I thought this would be a good time to get a thread up. Plenty of time till the opening parties, and I'm sure many of you are wanting to get that beach body ready to look spectacular on the beaches and in the clubs.

So, fire away any fitness related questions, and some nutrition based questions.

Please note, I am not a qualified nutritionist, but I can offer advice on what may help you reach your goals.

I will try and get on here at least once a day to answer the most relevant questions.


:D
 
I'll start.
If a 29yr old man is wanting to lose weight , what short of calorie intake should I aim for per day? Combining with exercise 4 times a week either gym (1hr) or run (5-9km,1hr ish)

Im guessing weight loss isnt as simple as this but would be good to have some basic figures to aim for to help when choosing foods/groceries
 
The farther your calorie intake is from your maintenance calorie intake (under maintenance) the more likely you are to be a yo-yo dieter. You may see results for a while, but your body is a clever thing. If you eat well under what you need, the hormonal status of your body will alter, changing the way you burn body fat, hold onto muscle etc. If it is used to getting too little calories, it will store what it can as fat.

A good approach is to try around 2000cals a day. Run that for a couple of weeks and see the results. If they are positive, carry on. If you are still keeping the fat, drop the cals by another 200 per day for another couple of weeks. If you are low on energy for workouts, try upping the cals a tad.

It's all about finding what works for you. Give whatever you do at least 2 weeks, to see how it works.

For fat loss, I recommend to a lot of my clients that they eat less than 100g of carbohydrates a day, when not working out. The quality of carb can be lower around your workouts - you may get away with simple sugars with protein. The further away from your workout, try to limit carb intake - and aim to get them from natural sources such as pulses and beans.

A good ratio to start with is protein/carb/fat

Non workout days 40/20/40
So for a 2000cal diet that would be
200g protein 100g carbs 90g fat

Workout days 40/40/20
Again for 2000cal diet
200g protein 200g carbs 45g fat

If you eat over your maintenance calories, any extra cals will likely be stored as fat (too much fat or carb in the diet). How much fat,will depend on how much over your daily needs you eat by.

The key is consistency.
 
Forgot to say aswell, ensure you hit your protein needs each day, and then simply alter the carb/fat intake. See what works for you like I said.
 
Yeah im trying to avoid anything too extreme in diet because its not maintainable , im going for the long haul so cutting things down rather than cutting anything out. What your suggesting seems totally doable and probs not too far off what im doing now diet wise
 
i've been doing circa 1000 calories... :p

breakfast: pret fruit salad (100)

lunch: pret cray fish salad & a packet of popcorn. (300)

dinner: low calorie meal from boots or wherever... (300/400)

rest made up from drinks...

am i going to die ?
 
I would keep an eye on salt intake those ready meals sometimes have shad loads (to make up for lack of other things haha)
 
West London Shadow said:
i've been doing circa 1000 calories... :p

breakfast: pret fruit salad (100)

lunch: pret cray fish salad & a packet of popcorn. (300)

dinner: low calorie meal from boots or wherever... (300/400)

rest made up from drinks...

am i going to die ?
Click to expand...


Man is that the starvation diet?

Not enough to eat at all, when you restrict your food intake like that then your body goes into siege mentality and will get the calories it needs to operate from other place i.e it'll start to eat into your muscle mass as this is easier to breakdown than fat.
 
West London Shadow said:
i've been doing circa 1000 calories... :p

breakfast: pret fruit salad (100)

lunch: pret cray fish salad & a packet of popcorn. (300)

dinner: low calorie meal from boots or wherever... (300/400)

rest made up from drinks...

am i going to die ?
Click to expand...

Way too little calories, mainly made up of carbohydrates. You NEED fats and protein.

I don't know your stats so can't comment on recommended cal intake. 1000cals is not gonna work in the long run. Slow and steady will trump fast fat loss in the long run.

Generally when I see a diet like above, my clients will omit to tell me about the chocolate, iced drinks, fizzy drinks etc that they consume. Forgotten calories I call them.

But yes, your diet needs a serious overhaul.
 
Trying to increase running mileage, been running in and outdoors, six days per week with one rest day since the start of 2012. I have no trouble at all with lung function / capacity at the pace I am running, it's my legs that seem to be not keeping up! Particularly my calf muscles and immediately to the back of my ankle (maybe 1cm higher to be exact). Is this simply an indicator that my calf muscles are not strong enough at the moment?
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
Trying to increase running mileage, been running in and outdoors, six days per week with one rest day since the start of 2012. I have no trouble at all with lung function / capacity at the pace I am running, it's my legs that seem to be not keeping up! Particularly my calf muscles and immediately to the back of my ankle (maybe 1cm higher to be exact). Is this simply an indicator that my calf muscles are not strong enough at the moment?
Click to expand...

I would say that you are putting in too much too soon. Running frequently puts a lot of stress on the muscles, joints and ligaments/tendons in the body. Many people I have trained

Have 2-3 rest days per week, especially after the run which may be your longest. Throw in a cross training day to give your 'running' muscles a rest. Maybe cycle/row/kettlebells. Something which will keep your work capacity up, but give the running muscles a good rest.

Strength training is very important in injury prevention and performance enhancement in runners. A basic full body routine to begin will help, maybe 1-2x a week, depending on how serious you are about running.

Are your runs the same standard every time i.e. time/distance/intensity?

Can I ask, are you running to lose weight, or are you running to improve your aerobic capacity/feel good?
 
Colonel Kurtz said:
It'll start to eat into your muscle mass as this is easier to breakdown than fat.
Click to expand...

Economically, muscle is very expensive to have. Simple as, if you don't train with weights and get adequate protein/calories, you will decrease your muscle mass. Think of it as a luxury. Your body only needs the amount of muscle required to complete what you do.

Fat gain, is a result of excess calories. Simple as. If you only require 2000 cals to maintain, but frequently eat 2200+ cals, the 'overspill' will be stored as fat. Aim to get your required cals, from high quality whole foods, and the protein/fat/carb ratio will then be dependent on your goals/activity levels (and type of activity).
 
As someone who is a very keen runner but is now trying to add some strength and muscle mass what sort of training routine do you think would work best?

I've got my regular diet sorted in terms of everything i need and my calorie intake but how much would you suggest increasing my calorie intake by and in what form in order to compensate for the increasing levels of work outs i would be doing?

I'm a 6ft tall guy with a slim build so no worries on the needing to lose any weight aspect either.
 
Londoner said:
Are your runs the same standard every time i.e. time/distance/intensity?

Can I ask, are you running to lose weight, or are you running to improve your aerobic capacity/feel good?
Click to expand...

I am trying to increase distance / stamina and aim to beat each successive run distance wise. Currently I am not doing any other excercise other than press ups.

The running is down to a) entering a half marathon that I am quite concerned about completing within three hours as I am not yet running 10km:oops: Also since starting taking it half seriously this year am simply loving it. Want to run in this is a year or two....
http://www.saharamarathon.co.uk/
 
Evolution said:
As someone who is a very keen runner but is now trying to add some strength and muscle mass what sort of training routine do you think would work best?

I've got my regular diet sorted in terms of everything i need and my calorie intake but how much would you suggest increasing my calorie intake by and in what form in order to compensate for the increasing levels of work outs i would be doing?

I'm a 6ft tall guy with a slim build so no worries on the needing to lose any weight aspect either.
Click to expand...

Keep it simple. 1-2 strength sessions a week should help. Try to keep them away from the longest run of the week.

Something along the lines of:

Deadlift 3x5
Unilateral Legs e.g. lunges, step ups, split squats etc 3x8-12
Pull ups 3xFailure (or 10-15 assisted)
Dips 3xFailure
Calf work 3x15
 
simle question. How useful / effective is jogging for weight loss / fat burn? if combined with decent diet and done for say an hour?
Is it a waste of time?
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
I am trying to increase distance / stamina and aim to beat each successive run distance wise. Currently I am not doing any other excercise other than press ups.

The running is down to a) entering a half marathon that I am quite concerned about completing within three hours as I am not yet running 10km:oops: Also since starting taking it half seriously this year am simply loving it. Want to run in this is a year or two....
http://www.saharamarathon.co.uk/
Click to expand...

If you can run 10km, you can run a half marathon. It's the psychology. Build up to the 10km

Try this:

Mon hills/intervals - around 2miles
Tue speed run - 2-3 miles
Thurs medium run - 3-4 miles
Sat long run - 4-6+ miles

Throw in some strength work as above, earlier in the week. Keep it simple and realtively easy to begin if you are not used to this amount of work. It takes time for all the systems in the body to be ready for sudden increase in work you have given them.:D
 
MiniMarc said:
simle question. How useful / effective is jogging for weight loss / fat burn? if combined with decent diet and done for say an hour?
Is it a waste of time?
Click to expand...

Not very effective. My clients have had great results with good nutrition, heavy lifting (yes, even women) and a 10 minute finisher at the end of the workout. If looking to burn fat I would say that 3 intense strength sessions per week would suffice.

Also, metabolic conditioning is absolutely amazing for stripping fat/maintaining muscle. This is where your heart rate is elevated for a period of time and you are also using some form of resistance. Kettlebells are great for this, so too are complexes.
 
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