Trying to cut weight. Can you rate my diet/workout plan?
 

Meal 1 (Breakfast): Either a combination of Cereal, banana, and cup of yogurt OR eggs, banana, yogurt
Meal 2 (snack 1): Apple and handful of almonds
Meal 3 (lunch): Turkey sandwich with whole grain bread, yogurt, banana/apple
Meal 4 (pre workout): A little bit of oatmeal, some fruits
Meal 5 (post workout): Whey protein shake, 3 spoons of peanut butter, blueberries
Meal 6 (dinner): Whatever mom makes. Usually a combination of chicken and soup.

As for the workout:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday = weight training
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday = HIIT

My goal is to burn off all the fat that I have right now to get lean. To be quite honest I'm not fat or chubby. I just have somewhat of a gut and a bit of unwanted fat on my chest, arms, and legs. So for me it's not about drastic weight loss, but to minimize that flab to see my muscles. I figure if I do this program for about 2-3 months I have my ideal body.

Thanks.

Cut out the peanut butter after your workout. Way too much fat for that time. Drink chocalete milk along with your whey than. Try not to eat too many carbs at dinner time. You may want to cut out some of your fruit later in the day, too. I don't think its necessary. Right before bed or around 9 or so at night, have cottage cheese or maybe one spoonful or peanut butter (3 is too much at any time). I think your workout routine looks great (Just wondering where your tennis is...).

Tennis is now a Sunday hobby. With school and work I hardly have the time to devote myself to serious practice. I just have a very busy schedule. Wake up early, head off to school, hit the gym right after, then go home and do homework. I suppose next semester I'll take less classes so I'll have more time to play a sport. Until then I just want to get in shape. Thanks for the tips though.

I would add in some veggies - fruits are high in sugars (good sugars, but sugars nonetheless). Spinach is superb, and actually makes for a tasty salad.

IMO, the carb intake is too high and the protein intake is too low. I eat closer to a 40/40/20 diet myself (roughly 180g each of protein and carbs, 40g of fat), and have leaned out considerably in the past 3-4 months.

Without bombarding me with numbers, what food would you recommend that I eat so that I don't have a surplus of carbs/deficiency of protein?

Are these proportions really necessary? If I keep my diet the way it is right now, will I see any results at all?

Either way, you'll see results, as long as you keep your caloric intake below your expenditure rate.

If you can handle dark green veggies, they are rich in nutrition (especially iron), so spinach, romaine lettuce, etc. I eat a lot of carrots, as they are high in fiber, which keeps you feeling full for longer (but they are also higher in sugar, unfortunately).

With regard to protein versus carbs, from what I understand of it, eating more lean protein can keep your body from turning to consuming muscle when in a caloric deficit. This may or may not be correct, it's just what I've read in the past. Obviously, white poultry makes for good lean protein (chicken, turkey). I tend to also take in lean beef at least 3x per week for the additional iron.

not really

not that necessary and 3 is fine for any time.

Three tablespoons of PB is roughly 300 calories...pretty calorie dense for anytime of the day.

You're short about 3 cups per day of vegetables and over by about 2 cups of fruits. You could replace eggs or pb with tofu.

Seems to me like you're eating way too much. And you're not doing enough cardio. But maybe you have a fast metabolism. Too much fruit if you're trying to cut fat. Maybe one apple or banana a day, and substitute the other servings of fruit with a green salad or carrots.

If he is doing a legit workouts, putting 25 g of fat in his body will slow down the synthesis of carb/protein intake that is needed to replenish his body by way too much. 3 tablespoons is 300 calories and if he is trying to burn fat, that will probably be too much especially with everything else he is eating. Sticking with 1 or 2 tbsl is the way to go.

And yes, you need to eat veggies. If you are hungry, eat as many leafy vegetables as you want. Using vinegar as your salad dressing is a healthy options if you start eating a lot of salads which you should do.

Or just completely forget diet and swim/run like a total mofo!

^ Diet is more important than exercise in my opinion. And in the opinion of researchers, but I guess there will always be exceptions depending on your metabolism. But most people don't have the time or physique to train like Michael Phelps.

Basically, you can run for an hour, then get back all the calories you burned in 10 minutes of crazy eating. And then some. In tests, exercise and a restrictive diet is ideal, but when people JUST exercised or JUST restricted calories, the people who ate less lost way more weight.

The trick is to not reward yourself for exercising by eating extra.

Darn, i been doing it all wrong. I usually reward myself with lots of food and beer!!

^ Yeah, me too. I've lost a lot of weight while drinking like a rock star. The drinking itself is fine, with me at least, but it's the drunken eating. When I can control that, the weight can and will fly off.

It's a quality of life issue. Drinking is critical to a good life.

This plan is tremendous.

And it is great to have a plan.

But as time goes by, you will modify your food intake and level of the workouts as you get stronger/faster.

So the best is to get started, and you will be clever enough to modify the details as time goes by. And post back here as necessary.

Good luck!

So I need to cut down on fruits and peanut butter, and eat more vegetables?

Thanks for the replies by the way.

Yikes. HIIT 3 times a week is pretty tough. Best of luck!

I would work in some other sort of running/cardio, and drop the HIIT to 1-2 times per week. If done right, the HIIT will take a LOT out of you, and it'd be good to have at least 1 "active recovery" day per week. For me, it's an hour on a stationary bike at 65%-70% of my MHR.

I've done HIIT quite a lot several years ago. It's an exercise that I need to do consistently in order to make progress. I've done HIIT once, twice, even three times a week. I saw the most significant results with 3 times per week.