Advice for my mate please

[tonym]

Hi guys,

I work with a guy who is 25 years old and weighs 21 stone

he changed his lifestyle habits and dropped 2 stone quite easily.

He is now at 19 stone and has been at 19 stone for 6 months now even though he continues to have a good diet and exercise.

He is feeling bad as no more weight is dropping off.

Typically he does 1 hour and 30 mins cardio 5 times a week consisting of cross trainer bike and treadmill

he eats 3 times a day

good breakfast,fruit and salad at lunch and grilled fish/chicken at night


is he training to much ?
is he not eating often enough


any advice backed with some scientific answer would greatly help him
he os so close to giving up


thanks

[LiftGirl]

Originally Posted by tonym

Hi guys,

I work with a guy who is 25 years old and weighs 21 stone

he changed his lifestyle habits and dropped 2 stone quite easily.

He is now at 19 stone and has been at 19 stone for 6 months now even though he continues to have a good diet and exercise.

He is feeling bad as no more weight is dropping off.

Typically he does 1 hour and 30 mins cardio 5 times a week consisting of cross trainer bike and treadmill

he eats 3 times a day

good breakfast,fruit and salad at lunch and grilled fish/chicken at night


is he training to much ?
is he not eating often enough


any advice backed with some scientific answer would greatly help him
he os so close to giving up


thanks

I think that's way too much cardio. He also should incorporate resistance training. Building muscle will help burn fat by increasing metabolism. If he's just doing cardio, then he's losing "weight" but probably not fat, if that makes sense.

[minime]

1. WAY too much cardio. I suggest he try some HIIT sessions (15mins) maybe 3x week and maybe he could do some steady state cardio another day.

2. WEight training. If he isn't doing it, he has to start. Tell him to lift and lift heavy. 3x full body sessions a week may be a good place to start - focus on compound exercises - pullups/chinups, squats, deadlifts etc.

3. Food. No he is not eating often enough and probably not eating enough calories (specifics will be needed for this) Six meals a day, smaller meals, spaced 2-3 hrs apart. Protein with every meal. Good fats - olive oil, fish oil, nuts etc. are not to be feared. At his size of 19stones (266lbs) he should be able to lose weight quite easily at 2660 cals (that 10 per lb of BW) more food, more often, better choices.

4. Tell him to get his a** online himself and get advice from others - if he is really serious about this, he should put in the time and effort necessary.

Thats my 2cents

[hellpup]

How much beer is he drinking?

Could be that mentally he's in a rut and isn't watching his diet as carefully and not working out as intensely. If he switches up his diet and workout plan with something new, it might help him make more gains. Particularly if he doesn't really like his current workout and diet. Any reasonable program that's different from his current one would help.

Doing 1.5 hours on cardio machines a day is pretty solitary -- has he thought of finding something more social to do some of the time, like team sports or martial arts? The key is to find something he really likes to do, so it doesn't feel like a punishment.

[Todd]

Originally Posted by minime

1. WAY too much cardio. I suggest he try some HIIT sessions (15mins) maybe 3x week and maybe he could do some steady state cardio another day.

2. WEight training. If he isn't doing it, he has to start. Tell him to lift and lift heavy. 3x full body sessions a week may be a good place to start - focus on compound exercises - pullups/chinups, squats, deadlifts etc.

3. Food. No he is not eating often enough and probably not eating enough calories (specifics will be needed for this) Six meals a day, smaller meals, spaced 2-3 hrs apart. Protein with every meal. Good fats - olive oil, fish oil, nuts etc. are not to be feared. At his size of 19stones (266lbs) he should be able to lose weight quite easily at 2660 cals (that 10 per lb of BW) more food, more often, better choices.

4. Tell him to get his a** online himself and get advice from others - if he is really serious about this, he should put in the time and effort necessary.

Thats my 2cents

I agree with minime, and the above #3 is the biggest factor as to why he's seeing the lack of results he desires. He needs to time his meals so that he is eating every 2-3 hours...a small nutritous meal more often will speed his metabolism up greatly as well as support many other physiological needs within the body ...in simple terms it will help him a lot to see better results.