i dont understand it, im following the diet below but my weight has gone up.

my stats: 27% body fat, weight is around 210lbs height is 5ft 19

i goto the gym 3 nights a week, doing weights and then finishing off with HIIT cardio on the treadmil.

can anyone give me some advice ?

Breakfast
Protein Shake
2x Slices Wholemeal Toast with low fat peanut butter
2x Weetabix with soy milk

Snack 1
Banana
Handful Of Mixed Nuts

Dinner
Jacket Potato, Cheese & Baked Beans

Snack 2
Banana
Handful Of Mixed Nuts

Tea
Protein Shake
Grilled Steak
Brown Rice
Steamed Veg

Snack 3
cottage Cheese on crackers

Weight is not a good indicator of progress IMO. We are too obsessed with the scales. You will find that you will gain a fair amount of lean body weight quickly when you first start lifting weights and this can account for the weight gain.

If anything it looks as if you are eating too little and you are definitely eating too little protein. Try to get a good variety of protein and eat 6 balanced meals a day consisting of protein, good fats and complex carbs with a side of veg or fruit at each meal.

Also read the stickies in the beginners forum to get a good idea of what you should be eating. Do the math and determine your ideal calories as a starting point and work out the grams of protein fat and carbs you need to eat per day.

I think with a high body fat as you have the weight probably shouldn't be going up. You should be able to add muscle for sure but you should be able to shed fat at a much quicker rate - you'll probably be able to add muscle at a rate of no more than 2lbs per month whilst at first on a cut the fat should be able to come off at 6-8lbs per month, although this rate may well slow up as you get leaner.


So fristly check calorie level - if you were eating a lot of rice and crackers this could easily cause you to be eating too many calories - portion control is important. You should be able to get away with a low calorie level at least at first without shedding muscle - I think you'd get away with 1500 -2000 cals at first - cos the body will happily shed the fat in favour of retaining muscle and indeed shed fat to fuel muscle growth whilst the body fat levels are high - say 20 percentish plus - but as you get leaner then the dynamics change and the body will become less keen on shedding fat stores and might start shedding muscle if the calorie level is too high.

I don't think however it's impossible you could have lost fat whilst gaining overall weight - to monitor fat loss check waist size by tape measure and by how jeans fit - waist will definitely shrink if fat is being lost. As a rough indicator to get from 27ish % body fat to say 10ish % bodyfat you're probably looking at dropping 3, maybe more, jeans sizes.

I think with a high body fat as you have the weight probably shouldn't be going up. You should be able to add muscle for sure but you should be able to shed fat at a much quicker rate - you'll probably be able to add muscle at a rate of no more than 2lbs per month whilst at first on a cut the fat should be able to come off at 6-8lbs per month, although this rate may well slow up as you get leaner.


So fristly check calorie level - if you were eating a lot of rice and crackers this could easily cause you to be eating too many calories - portion control is important. You should be able to get away with a low calorie level at least at first without shedding muscle - I think you'd get away with 1500 -2000 cals at first - cos the body will happily shed the fat in favour of retaining muscle and indeed shed fat to fuel muscle growth whilst the body fat levels are high - say 20 percentish plus - but as you get leaner then the dynamics change and the body will become less keen on shedding fat stores and might start shedding muscle if the calorie level is too high.

I don't think however it's impossible you could have lost fat whilst gaining overall weight - to monitor fat loss check waist size by tape measure and by how jeans fit - waist will definitely shrink if fat is being lost. As a rough indicator to get from 27ish % body fat to say 10ish % bodyfat you're probably looking at dropping 3, maybe more, jeans sizes.

i have noticed my work trousers get a bit tighter, maybe i need to use a tape measure

this is an interesting point, i think im going to up my cardio level for the next 2 weeks to see where it gets me, going to do HIIT cardio in AM ever day except sunday and still do my lifting 3 times a week on the night.

this should hopefully shift some fat %

What's your lifting like? Exercises, sets, reps, etc.

Diet is most important, but lifting is second IMO. Cardio is the icing.

So get your diet right (and yours needs much work...read the stickies), then schedule your workout around metabolism increasing lifting. Fit in cardio in the rest of your workout time.

i have noticed my work trousers get a bit tighter, maybe i need to use a tape measure

this is an interesting point, i think im going to up my cardio level for the next 2 weeks to see where it gets me, going to do HIIT cardio in AM ever day except sunday and still do my lifting 3 times a week on the night.

this should hopefully shift some fat %


If your trousers are tighter (unless they have somehow shrunk in the wash) then you've almost certainly added fat. So something does appear to be wrong, it's easy to eat more calories than you think if you're not careful about portion size. Also do you stick to the diet at the weekends or is there booze and junk involved at the weekends ?

I wouldn't just rely on cardio shift the fat, of even more importance is your diet. You should work out your maintenance calories via this site http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm in accordance with your activity level and I think at your body fat levels eat at least 500 cals, but defo no more than 1000, beneath maintenance, to shift the fat. Eat the relevant amount of cals over 5-6 meals. Include plenty of green veg and some healthy fats with 2-3 meals - flax oil, natural peanut butter, olive oil, fish oil etc. Minimise booze and junk - I think a maximum of one junk food meal and a few drinks once a week but zero is better. Do this and weights plus cardio and the weight will fly off you, at least at first.

If your trousers are tighter (unless they have somehow shrunk in the wash) then you've almost certainly added fat. So something does appear to be wrong, it's easy to eat more calories than you think if you're not careful about portion size. Also do you stick to the diet at the weekends or is there booze and junk involved at the weekends ?

I wouldn't just rely on cardio shift the fat, of even more importance is your diet. You should work out your maintenance calories via this site in accordance with your activity level and eat I think at least 500 cals beneath maintenance to shift the fat. Eat the relevant amount of cals over 5-6 meals. Include plenty of green veg and some healthy fats with 2-3 meals - flax oil, natural peanut butter, olive oil, fish oil etc. Minimise booze and junk - I think a maximum of one junk food meal and a few drinks once a week but zero is better. Do this and weights plus cardio and the weight will fly off you, at least at first.

i worked out that i should be consuming around 2374.7 to loose 1lb per week.

im drink probably twice a month and thats not to excessive, i have about 3 vodka/lemmonades when i drink also on a sunday i get my self a pizza + chips for tea as a reward for been good (and my shopping is done on a monday so normally have no food in lol)

i realise im not eating enough calories but at first shouldnt the fat start to drop as im a high level of BF% (or have a miss interpreted your post)

my lifting is just a split 3 day routine that to be honest i could do with sorting out more and putting a bit more effort into.

diet is something that i can never never get right.

i worked out that i should be consuming around 2374.7 to loose 1lb per week.

i realise im not eating enough calories but at first shouldnt the fat start to drop as im a high level of BF% (or have a miss interpreted your post)

my lifting is just a split 3 day routine that to be honest i could do with sorting out more and putting a bit more effort into.

diet is something that i can never never get right.


Here's a site to work out maintenance cals in accordance with your activity level :- http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm.


If you really are 27 percent body fat I think you could aim for more like 2lbs per week fat loss, at first anyway, will get the job done quicker. I could be wrong, but if you have indeed added fat, I cannot see how you can be eating not enough cals, others might disagree. To lose 2lbs a week you'll need to be in a decent calorie deficit via diet, weights and cardio.

I think you should post up your weight lifting routine to see what assistance folk on here can offer.

my lifting is just a split 3 day routine that to be honest i could do with sorting out more and putting a bit more effort into.

Maybe you need a more metabolic plan that is centered around big compound lifts that hormonally and metabolicaly help the body. Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, and chins/pulldowns. Each movement chosen to use a lot of muscles, instead of exercises of much lesser impact exercises like curls and calf raises.

And maybe to up the metabolism, work out in an upper/lower split or a full body plan. Arm days don't raise the metabolism as much as a good deadlift day.

diet is something that i can never never get right.

Simple rules:


Real protein in every meal.
Greens in nearly every meal.
Fruits maybe a couple of times a day if you are cutting, but not abused.
Starchy carbs limited to near workout times or maybe first meal of the day.
Starchy carbs are minimally processed. No white flour, white rice, sugar/HFCS.
Healthy fats are not to be feared. In fact, they are important for a lot of reasons including hormone production, insulin control, joint health, heart health, etc. Eat them.