Firefighter training school cutting diet help

Bit of a long post this, bear with me.

I applied for my local fire brigade at the beginning of the year and after 8 months of tests and plenty of waiting I finally been offered a place (1 of 11 out of a total of over 600 applicants :)). I start my dream job at the beginning of November.

I have really been trying to get in shape ready for training as it's extremely intense. But I?m failing big time at the mo and really need some help with my diet.

I currently weigh 228lbs, but I want to be around 200. I realize that this won't be achievable by the beginning of November but I would like to be as close as possible.

I was working out 10 times a week, stupidly thinking that this would mean that I lost weight quickly, which I didn't! I was over training big time.

I have cut this down and I'm currently doing the following schedule (all done first thing in the morning):

Monday - 40 mins of Weights (Bi's, chest & shoulders) + 30 mins of HIIT Cardio
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - 40 min of HIIT Cardio
Thursday - Rest
Friday - 40 mins of weights (Back, legs and Tri's) + 30 min of HITT Cardio
Saturday - 40 min of HIIT Cardio
Sunday - Rest

This seems to have been a lot better and I have lost some weight since changing to this routine.

My biggest failing at the moment is with my diet!

I'm currently only eating 1500 calories a day (to be honest I?m lucky if I manage that). This is made up of 1 meal at lunchtime of 2 chicken breasts in sauce (bbq, gravy etc) with 2 cup full's of vegetables, which equates to around 500-600 calories. The rest is made up entirely of protein shakes.

As a result of this I'm tired all the time, which makes getting to the gym extremely hard and when I do it takes ages for my muscles to heal!

I'm really after some advice on my diet. I don't have much time to prepare food. I have also found that having my main meal in the middle of the day has helped me lots and would like to stick with this.

I'm really struggling to lose the weight, and I don't want to fail at training and lose this opportunity after I have come so far, please help, I need to get back on tack and quickly! :D :D

sounds like a protein fast, not really a good idea trying to get in shape for a job. you need 500-1000kcalories more from carbohydrates and fat

are you in shape cardiovascular wise? i was in the new york city fire department academy and i can tell you that if you are not in shape now (and they have you running as much as they did us), then it may be too late

Yeah it's def not working at all and it's not really what I was trying to do. I will try and increase my carbs & fat :D

My cardiovascular is pretty good, I'm no marathon runner but I was doing 80 mins of HIIT cardio every day, sometimes twice a day and I had no problems at all with that.

I passed the pyshical test in the application stage but I realise it's not going to be easy and I will give it everything (and more probably) that I can and just hope I can manage.

This is why my routine is geared to cardio rather than weights. I'm hoping that my cardiovascular will imporve further before I start.

Are you still with the fire dept?

[QUOTE=P4ULY;220797711]Yeah it's def not working at all and it's not really what I was trying to do. I will try and increase my carbs & fat :D

My cardiovascular is pretty good, I'm no marathon runner but I was doing 80 mins of HIIT cardio every day, sometimes twice a day and I had no problems at all with that.

I passed the pyshical test in the application stage but I realise it's not going to be easy and I will give it everything (and more probably) that I can and just hope I can manage.

This is why my routine is geared to cardio rather than weights. I'm hoping that my cardiovascular will imporve further before I start.

Are you still with the fire dept?[/QUOTE]


80mins of HIIT a day?! YOU MAD?

[QUOTE=P4ULY;220797711]Yeah it's def not working at all and it's not really what I was trying to do. I will try and increase my carbs & fat :D

My cardiovascular is pretty good, I'm no marathon runner but I was doing 80 mins of HIIT cardio every day, sometimes twice a day and I had no problems at all with that.

I passed the pyshical test in the application stage but I realise it's not going to be easy and I will give it everything (and more probably) that I can and just hope I can manage.

This is why my routine is geared to cardio rather than weights. I'm hoping that my cardiovascular will imporve further before I start.

Are you still with the fire dept?[/QUOTE]

yeah, a lot of guys passed the physical part.. there is a medical portion here of 5 minutes with a vest on a stairmaster where your heartbeat/min can't go over a certain number and a lot of the fat guys fail that.

but then when they get to the actual academy they think they are in and end up not being prepared at all, but then again thats what makes nyc the toughest fire academy there is

i wouldn't focus too much on your strength, cardiovascular conditioning is most important. focus on strength after your fire training :)

unfortunately 2 months into the academy i broke my hand (end of feb) so i need to wait until i get back in through another class

Let the firefighting training be your cut. 40 minutes of HIIT, if it is in fact HIIT (I doubt it) is counter-productive.

What's the training for the firefighters look like? I'm sure on fire training days you'll just need to keep calories pretty high.

[QUOTE=Own3r;220802261]80mins of HIIT a day?! YOU MAD?[/QUOTE]

Yes I was, for sure!

[QUOTE=icery;220810061]yeah, a lot of guys passed the physical part.. there is a medical portion here of 5 minutes with a vest on a stairmaster where your heartbeat/min can't go over a certain number and a lot of the fat guys fail that.

but then when they get to the actual academy they think they are in and end up not being prepared at all, but then again thats what makes nyc the toughest fire academy there is

i wouldn't focus too much on your strength, cardiovascular conditioning is most important. focus on strength after your fire training :)

unfortunately 2 months into the academy i broke my hand (end of feb) so i need to wait until i get back in through another class[/QUOTE]

Nah I'm not focusing on strength at all really just cardio, the weights are there to help keep me interested :D

Sorry to hear about the injury, hope the next time goes well :)

[QUOTE=FunkDaddy;220823351]Let the firefighting training be your cut. 40 minutes of HIIT, if it is in fact HIIT (I doubt it) is counter-productive.

What's the training for the firefighters look like? I'm sure on fire training days you'll just need to keep calories pretty high.[/QUOTE]

I want to be in the best shape possible before I start.

If I have understood HIIT correctly it's 1 min of cardio @ 60% max heart rate and then 1 min @ 80-90% max heart rate and so on, if it is, that's what I'm doing :D

Not sure how the training is looking yet, I will find out at the end of October. I shall adjust me diet once I know, but like you say I'm guessing I will need to eat more again.

Can anyone else help?

You maybe too late I know your in the UK but in California some colleges offer a fire science program that have fire agility training as a requirment to the A.S. dagree. If you had that option (it's sounds like your out of time) it's the best thing to get you use to carring hose packs and an SCBA you work with stairs, ladders, hoses lays and dummie drags (that get you strong in areas that you don't think of such as hand grip strangth) as well running, weight room time and sit down nutrition class. Three times through the class we went to station 2 here in Santa Clara and went through a 7 stage agility test for the classes test. It got me fully peapared and now I'm currently working on my B.A.