You're going to be consistently disappointed with your progress in the gym if you don't change your diet. Do you at least have any consistency in what you eat?

Also, fat isn't necessarily bad. when people think of fat in a negative connotation, they're often really thinking about LDL cholesterol. almonds are good. eat them and love them.

Yes, I eat the same things every week more or less. Lots and lots of fruit (apples and bananas, less grapefruit than I would like), chicken and turkey whenever it's there (I fucking love turkey clubs), saltine crackers, ice cream (I know it's shit for me), oatmeal, and for lunch I usually just have baked potato chips. Maybe a few slices of pizza on saturday.

If I can bring myself to get rid of the pizza, ice cream, and chips I think I'll be all right, but I'd have to make time for accomodating some sort of crazy tibetan mummification diet.

Edit, mostly so I can remember wtf later
My meals run something like:
Breakfast:
Nothing

"Lunch":
A bowl or two of almonds spaced from 10 AM to 4 PM
A few apples and bananas
A mug of kratom tea

Dinner:
Whatever's there, usually chicken or a few more apples

On lifting days I get a 5-dollar turkey, lettuce, and tomato sandwich on whole wheat about 15 minutes after I finish working out, which is usually around 5:30 PM, so that's my dinner on those days. I put three packets of mayo and mustard on it because it's a big fucking sandwich and because whole wheat tastes like shit dry, sue me.

I drink water constantly, and I've stopped drinking alcohol altogether because A, I hate it, and B, you guys said not to. I also stopped getting stoned every day so that I wouldn't spend my evenings going on uncontrollable junk food binges. Starting yesterday I'm swearing off ice cream and the free bags of chips at the office, but I might keep pizza night on Saturday going.

This list made me realize that I eat basically jack shit. I'm not sure if I should be worried about this.

I'm losing about half a pound a day lately since I switched to eating only 1500 calories each day. I exercise about an hour a day, doing 30 minutes of cardio on my elliptical and then the convict conditioning stuff. I know they say you're not supposed to do cardio on days when you do strength training, but I feel it can only help my endurance.

I've never been a big believer that cardio is bad for your gains. A little cardio warm up and cool down is perfectly alright.

I should say you probably don't want to run five miles and then lift

You should set up a meal plan. A legitimate meal plan. None of this "when it's there" shit.

For example, here's what I had on my last bench day:

Breakfast
4 eggs
1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup raspberries
1 glass milk
Water

Snack
1 tomato, sliced and drizzled with olive oil
Water

Lunch
Turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, dry
1 slice of fresh, whole milk mozzarella
3/4 cup of brown rice
Raw baby spinach
Water

Snack
3 oranges because they are my weakness
Green tea

Dinner
Grilled chicken
1 sliced tomato
Raw baby spinach
1/2 cup brown rice
Milk
Water

Post workout
BROTEINZ

Before bed
Cottage cheese

i don't think a meal plan is necessary, provided that you eat the protein and starches your body needs in proximity to workouts, and provided your daily calories and macro ratios are in check. then again i'm tremendously used to doing that, so maybe planning it would be easier for a nub.

disjointed notes on all of that:

stuff like kneeling pushups and inverted rows are replacements for weighted exercises and which you can do at home. i wouldn't ever do those at a gym. i wouldn't bother with dumbbell squats because you'll outgrow them (your ability to grip the dumbbells will fail way before your ability to squat at high weights with dbs) and then you'll have to learn how to do real squats anyway, or if you plan to never do a barbell squat you could just use the leg press machine with similar effects.

the only leg work you have are squats. stuff you're missing in your routine: hamstrings, calves, arms, traps, posterior deltoid (back of shoulder), lateral deltoid (top of shoulder), upper pecs, pec minors, abs, lower abs/hip flexors. that's probably not a problem for a beginner's routine, but if you're going to do a limited beginner's routine you might as well just do Starting Strength. starting strength is just A: squat, bench, chinups; B: squat, overhead press, deadlift. get the program with the DVD from the pirate bay or buy it and learn your form.

for a deadlift to be at the proper height, you either need to use at least one 45-lb plate on each side, or you need to balance the bar on a pair of very low safety rails (this is called a rack pull). the minimum weight on a normal deadlift is therefore 135 lbs (45 + 45 + 45 for the bar).

if you can't do dragon flags, decline weighted situps are good. they work best with a medicine ball and a partner, but you can just as easily hold onto a plate while doing it.

your pre-workout cardio should be done at medium to low intensity, or it will negatively impact your ability to lift. do not sprint to prepare for liftan. the purpose of pre-workout cardio is to move blood to your muscles to prevent injury. the way you can tell when you've done enough is when you feel warm and are sweating. at medium intensity, this usually takes about 7 minutes for me. there is no need to do cardio after your lifts. there is also no need to stretch if you use warm-up sets (you should use warm-up sets). warm-up sets act as functional dynamic stretches. static stretching (holding a pose) has never been proven in a study to reduce injury, and has in fact been proven to increase the likelihood of injury if a stretch is maintained for more than 10 seconds.

So over a couple of weeks, I've managed to lose 13 pounds of fat! Not to bad so far.

That sounds like starvation rations, even though it isn't. :\

Slightly off track, but how would you work a diet plan for two people's meals?

Just cook a batch, then regulate through portions?

With me being a 5'4" woman and him being a 6'4" man food rations are problematic.

I will say, I do not follow any set meal plan. I don't need it. A meal plan should be about instilling discipline so that you don't eat the next piece of cake you see and touch your dick at the same time. Eating poorly kills progress.

There's nothing wrong with doing cardio after a workout, if you WANT to do cardio. I, however, rarely focus on cardio at all. Generally twice a week. My warmups consist of muscle ups, burpees, lunges, good mornings, and the like. I do, however, always stretch after my workout. Picked it up after my car accident.

SS is probably the best way to go, but if you're too lazy to do what Chojin says, go here.

You being a 5'4" woman and your significant other being a 6'4" man must make for clown sex.

Your dietary needs will be significantly different. He will likely need A LOT more than you on any given day. Get a feel for your portion sizes, yes, but also think about what each of you really needs throughout the day. Are you physically active? What do you eat?

We're only mildly active. I tend to like a lot of salad and vegetables, he's a protein fiend but also a grease junkie. He insists baked beans are a good source of nutrients and protein and incorporates them into as many meals as possible.

Speaking of fitness, I would like to fit my dick between your tits.

Here's what I had today

BREAKFAST
Crumpets drizzled with peanut butter (4)
Cup of luke warm, slightly coffee flavoured milk

SNACK
Jam and peanut butter sandwiches (3-4)
Biscuits (lots)
Apple
Packet of chips with tomato sauce
Water

LUNCH
Penang chicken curry and stir fry rice
Iced tea

SNACK
Mars Bar

DINNER
Plate of spaghetti
Homemade scotch eggs in wallaby mince (6)
Water
Cup of tea

SNACK
Water
Peanuts

DESSERT
Ice cream
A quarter of a chocolate pie

SNACK
More ice cream and pie

I generally don't stick to any kind of plan, I don't need it probably and also can't be bothered, and often I will drop breakfast if I wake up after 1:00pm, in favour of extra snacking at regular intervals. Dessert is subject to availability, and may just involve several cups of tea with lots of biscuits.

Exercise usually consists of watching JAG, MacGyver and Sabrina the Teenage Witch on midday television, and then walking down shops when I get hungry. Today, however, I danced my tits off to music for several hours.

Do you intend to become more active?

I do, yes. And he'll take up weights again 'as soon as I get my gym up'.

The other thing being that he wants to weight lift, meaning he wants nothing but protein, whereas I want both cardio and weights (being a fatty girl and all)

For the most part you should be consuming 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight, take that into consideration before you start doing meat on meat sandwiches with meatshakes for every meal. Also consider whether or not you plan on supplementing before or after a workout.

This is a really good place to start if you want some general information. I don't mind helping you form up a dietary plan or an exercise regimen and I'm sure the first Terezi wouldn't either.

Oh shit brah are you BULKAN

I'm a lean, lean, leaning machine.

your husband will need to do cardio as well. unless he has some amazing genetics, his blood pressure and cholesterol levels will be fuct without cardio.

i watched an interesting film the other day called 'fat head' that had some odd ideas about the role of cholesterol in heart health (namely, that cholesterol levels are irrelevant). it also said some things about dieting that bordered on misinformation, but i won't bother to go into it unless anyone else has seen the film and wants to talk about it. i'm adjusting my macros to 40% fat (mostly saturated animal fat) / 40% protein / 20% carb (mostly low GI) to test out the concepts it raised that i'm unfamiliar with, since I've been eating very low fat for quite some time and my bloodwork came back terrible.

this is actually kinda interesting, and i've never heard of it. it explains why lyle's ultimate diet 2.0 recommends magnesium and potassium supplements before the carb refeed on the weekend.

I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT EITHER UNTIL I SAW IT ON 1000 WAYS TO DIE.

SOURCE: <--- THIS IS ALSO A LINK THAT YOU CAN CLICK ON PRETTY COOL