Getting fit

[honesty]

I'd like to pick your brains on my specific diet and exercise plan with the ultimate goal to be loosing the gut and moobs. Weight is less important to me that % body fat.

Ok the facts:
I'm 30 and 220lbs.
I do a sedentary job, and don't have much time to go to the gym.
I train for 3 hours a week in MA.
I swim 3 times a week (thanks for the help on that previously!)
I plan to start doing a light 2 mile run before breakfast every working day once I am settled into the swimming.
My standard daily diet is usually:
Breakfast: glass of orange juice, muesli with chopped fresh fruit (usually a large plum or a nectarine) and a mug of tea.
lunch: salad (green lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, onions) with meat (chicken or ham) and sometimes cheese, a banana, and a mug of tea.
Snacks: yoghurt (eaten about half an hour before I go swimming) and mugs of tea.
Dinner: I usually cook, for example last night I did wholemeal pasta with sausages in a sauce (tomatoes, garlic, onions, mushrooms, peppers, green beans), and a mug of tea.

So, given what I currently eat, and what I am currently doing looking to do with exercise, any suggestions on what I can do to loose fat?

[alex]

im guessing you work up about as much sweat from doing wado and aikido as i do from walking down a flight of stairs, so try the running and swimming for a while and see how it goes. your diet doesnt look too bad, try smaller portions if you can. look at the foods you buy, look at differing brands, pick the ones with the lowest amount of saturated fats. it may surprise you which brands these are.

[honesty]

Actually the wado works up quite a sweat on me, the aikido does not though.

I've been cutting down on portion sizes and only have between 50g and 70g of pasta for example.

[Eddie Hardon]

Just go to your local Sports Centre and do the Circuits Class 3 times a week, say, Mon-Wed-Fri.

No excuses now, just go and do it. You will learn a great deal about physical conditioning, strength building, flexibility, plyometrics and so much more.

Get to it or I'll send one of brothers around. (One lives in Yeovil).

Give it 3 months and you'll thank me. Go on, off you go....

[Bang!]

Make breakfast your most calorie-dense meal and replace the carbs at dinner with protein and healthy fat. Add two to three snacks (healthy fats good, proteins good, carbs . . . not yet).

[Teh El Macho]

^^ What RM said. Food looks good except for the dinner. I'd add to what he said by suggesting brocolli as a "filler".

Except for breakfast, aim to replace 1/3 to 1/2 of your carbs (pasta, bread, etc) with brocolli, starting 2-3 times a week. You'd be surprised how powerful this little change can be.

[MatthewD]

Your diet sounds really good, especially compared to mine. I'm no nutrition-guru but fruit, muesli and stuff like that are good, right? Anyways, maybe ditch Aikido and do Muay Thai, like I do. It's really fun, and I'm already noticing a difference in my appearance. I do it twice a week and if I can get lifts down I'll up it to 3-4. Classes go for 1.5 hours and we do a bit of warm up before class since my friends and I get there 20-25 minutes early. We do allot of cardio and aerobic work...that's the stuff that burns fat, isn't it?

Anyways...just my uneducated point of view.

[honesty]

Brocolli is our standard veg, it pretty much gets added to everything (well apart from pasta sauces!).

So load up a breakfast and look to remove carbs in later meals, what's good for doing this at breakfast? Porridge, I'm guessing which is what I usually have when I have time to make it in the mornings, but I'm guessing you mean going further than just that.

MatthewD, its heresy here, but I actually rather like doing Aikido, so no thanks.

[honesty]

Ideas on protein snacks would be helpful as well. Ta!

[Vorpal]

If you want a time saving fat burner pick up a weighted jump rope. I just got a 5lb one and it is a kickass addition to my workouts.

[Bang!]

^^ What RM said. Food looks good except for the dinner. I'd add to what he said by suggesting brocolli as a "filler".

Except for breakfast, aim to replace 1/3 to 1/2 of your carbs (pasta, bread, etc) with brocolli, starting 2-3 times a week. You'd be surprised how powerful this little change can be.

Word. Veggies are veggies, not carbs, IMO.

[DannyMac]

If you're interested in fat loss, I would do some kind of interval training instead of just a pure 2 mile run. That's going to have more aerobic benefits than fat loss benefits, IMO.

There's tons of good examples of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on the web. Find something that you feel will fit into your schedule.

I'm also a big believer in weight training for fat loss. A solid weight routine has a lot of HIIT characteristics and having more muscle on you, even if it's under existing fat, will have the benefit of raising your BMR. That means you'll burn more calories during your sedentary job.

[honesty]

Yeh, I used to do a weights and that was much better, will have to see if I can fit 2 weight sessions in a week at some point!

[Eddie Hardon]

I have Porridge for Breakfast plus 2 slices of toast and 1 cup of tea (small sugar).

How're you getting on at that Circuit training ? (you'll thank me, oh yes you will).

Cheers

[honesty]

Porridge is definitely the best, though I like something like shredded wheat or muesli when its hot.

Looking into circuit training so will see whats available around here!