Do I really need to see a dietitian?

[Marcus888]

Hey guys, just looking for a little advice, preferably from experienced eaters.

I currently weigh around 98kg with roughly at my guess 10 solid kg's of fat which I am looking to lose (at least a good majority of it).
I was going to see a dietitian but before I do I would like to hear from others on how I should approach this.
Should I just start eating healthy with lean meat following some of the meals on this website, or does counting your daily calories really matter that much?

Any input would be helpful, let me know what you think.

[Phedder]

Calorie counting just helps take some of the guess work out of it, but it's certainly not necessary. Has your weight been fairly stable around 98kg, for say the last month? If so post up what a typical days diet would be, and we could make some suggestions of a few things to change to get things moving in the right direction. 

[Marcus888]

Yeah I've been 98kg's for longer than a month now. A typical days diet would be...

- 10-14 weetbix
- 5 scoops of yoghurt mixed with sunflower and pumpkin seeds
- usually chicked or other meat in a pretty hefty sandwich for lunch
- after the gym ill have a protein shake
- 5-6 scrambled eggs
- dinner, meat of some kind, potatoes, vegitables.

Every day obviously isn't going to be exactly the same, but this would be a normal days routine.

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

if your weight stayed the same for a while and you are now looking to lose some then we can assume you are at that equilibrium with both your current eating and training regiment. if you want to do it without having to count cals/see a dietician then easiest approach for you now is simply to go in a deficit by removing some of the foods already in your diet OR increasing cardio somewhere to reach that deficit... or combination of both.

 

you can approach it many different ways but here is a very simple 500cal deficit. you could also do easy little things like if you have 4 potatoes with dinner then make it 3 instead or if you've not been trimming fat/skin off meat before cooking then that's also a easy little thing

• add in 10mins brisk walk each day = 100cals (well probably more for you since you're 98kgs)
• instead of eating 14 weetbix daily eat just 10.. each 4 weetbix is 200 cals so theres another 200 cal deficit
• find out how many calories in each scoop of yoghurt.. i'll just assume there is liek 100 cals in each scoop (but check the label of the one you eat) so just have 3 scoops instead of 5

 

[Phedder]

Alright, so without drastically changing anything a few tweaks should get you steadily dropping some fat. 

Try:

• 5 weetbix, 3 scoops of yohurt with the sunflower and pumpkin seeds, add 1-2 hard boiled eggs (Eat them seperately.., or 3-4 tablespoons of cottage cheese) And add a few handfuls of spinach or other vege to help bulk out your stomach a bit and keep fibre high.
• Stick with the big chicken sandwich for lunch, but try removing or reducing the sauces or dressings you may use, instead try a tea spoon of salsa spread over it. 
• Keep the protein shake
• 3-4 scrambled eggs instead of 5-6, again you can mix spinach or something in with it to bulk out the meal more
• Dinner, lots of meat, lots of vegetables, but instead of potato try kumara or pumpkin. Or even better, mash the two together, tastes awesome. 

So the diet's pretty much the same, just removed a bit of carbs from the breakfast and added a little more protein with eggs or cottage cheese, and some vege there to bulk it out to keep you feeling full. Reducing dressings on the sandwich can cut a few easy calories you won't miss there, and again using kumara or pumpkin at dinner should reduce the carbs just a little bit further. I'm not sure what you're doing cardio wise, but if it's nothing at all yet throw in a 20 minute brisk walk 6 days a week morning or night. It doesn't sound like much but that adds up to 2 hours of cardio you weren't doing, and fairly easy so it shouldn't impact recovery from your weights at all. If you find that quite easy you could then start swapping some for higher intensity interval trainings for 10-15 minutes. 

Give that a shot for 2 weeks and see how the body responds, and adjust from there. 

[Marcus888]

Awesome! Thanks for the tips guys, I will definitely be implementing your ideas. Not looking forward to vegetables for breakfast, but it has to be done!