My journey is now beginning (Advice appreciated)

[MasterPlanRedux]

Ok, so here's the situation...

I'm 26 years old and have put on a lot of weight in the 5 years since I graduated college. I'm 6'4 and when I was in decent shape in college, I weighed around 230. I hadn't weighed myself in the years in between, at first because I didn't care and then later on because I was scared of what the number looking back at me would be. I decided to start going to the gym again last week (June 1st) and got on the scale. 301. Yes, that's pounds. Not a typo. I have gained over 70 pounds in the past 5 years. How? Laziness and bad eating habits. Since I am here and writing this, I'm sure you can guess that I'm determined to change this. For weightlifting and conditioning, I'm going to be using LL Cool J's fitness book as my template for the first few months. Right now, in the 2nd week, it's all about full body circuit training every other day. I'm determined to give this a try for now, so I'm not looking for any weight training or conditioning advice. I am more curious about my diet.

Right now, my diet/schedule looks like this (I work from 10 AM to 6:30PM, M thru F):

Wake up at 8 AM
1st meal at 8:15 AM: Egg white omelette with vegetables
2nd meal at 11:00 AM: Fresh fruit salad on workout days, 2 scoops of Whey Protein mixed with 20 oz of water on non-workout days
3rd meal at 1:15 PM: Either a grilled chicken breast with mixed vegetables, a turkey or tuna sandwich on wheat with mustard, or a can of 98% fat free turkey chili mixed with a grilled chicken breast, plus a piece of fruit
4th meal at 4 PM: Protein bar (currently working through a case of Pure Protein bars, 20g protein/2g sugars
5th meal at 7:15 PM: Grilled chicken breast with mixed vegetables and brown rice (chicken is sometimes replaced with tuna steak or salmon)
Work-out from 8:15 PM to 10:30 PM
6th meal at 11 PM: 2 scoops of Whey Protein mixed with 20 oz of water on workout days, fresh fruit/vegetables on non-workout days
Sleep at midnight

Couple of things - Right now in the program, LL Cool J's workout is every other day; eventually, it gets to every day. At that time, the workout day meals above will become standard. Once I lose some of the fat from weight training and cardio at the gym on stationary bikes, I fully intend to make jogging a regular part of the schedule, too. Am I missing anything here? 2nd/3rd/4th meals are eaten at work, so these must be simple to make and quick to eat. Also, I drink a large amount of water throughout the day, at least 160 oz. per day on average.

Any tips/diet suggestions? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

-C

 

[TopCat]

LL Cool J, haven't heard that one before.

I'm not sure of the intensity of that program, but you should look up HIIT and Metcon and Tabata intervals in the Conditioning section. In the very least you should plan to implement them if you really want to light up your ****bolism.

Judging by your sample diet it appears you have more room for adding veggies to your diet. By that, I mean any meal that doesn't have them, should. Look up Berardi's "7 Habits" in the FAQ for some key covenants that'll teach you better eating.

I'd also suggest replacing the whey and protein bars (which I presume to be shitty) with a milk protein isolate shake. The slower digestion of casein will ensure a steadier ****bolism and solid stream of amino acids to your system. Procure so type of greens supplement to add to you shake so you don't miss out on servings of veggies.

PWO is more controversial on this forum, but using your whey protein in this window with some form of low-GI carb will get you the thumbs up.

Most importantly, PLAN YOUR MEALS AHEAD OF TIME AND KEEP RECORDS OF YOUR PROGRESS. The scientific process flourishes for a reason; you can't effectively analyze and adjust your training regimen/diet unless you can isolate problem factors and evaluate progress of realistic goals.

Five minutes of suggestion, there. I really wanted to just recommend you look into Berardi's Precision Nutrition, but I wanted to actually post something decent for a change.

 

[Rowan11088]

By far the biggest problem, is that your workout is too late and you're not feeding yourself afterwards. If you absolutely can't move the workout earlier in the day, at least fix your diet so you're giving your body something to recover with after you exercise. It's tough when you're going to bed so soon afterwards, which means you'll have to be very careful to get the right amount of carbs, but not too much. If you don't fix this you will quickly overtrain and won't get the results you want.