Hello Onahealthyjourney97 and welcome to the forum.
I can appreciate the reasons behind why you’d wish to embark upon lengthy, drawn out cardio sessions in an attempt to get down to your goal weight by mid-summer. However, adhering to such a gruelling regime is going to leave you burned out soon after you begin.
Moreover, attaining weight loss though exercise, alongside a healthy diet, doesn’t have to be that difficult either.
Firstly, by ascertaining how many daily calories should be consumed to satisfy both your BMR and TDEE, you have a far greater idea of how much energy (calories) your body requires on a daily basis (research BMR/TDEE calculators).
Once you know your numbers, you’ll stand a far greater chance of allowing calorie reduction to work in your favour.
By introducing a daily calorie deficit from your TDEE, provided the deficit introduced doesn’t take you below your BMR, you’ll begin to lose weight on a sustainable level (1-3lbs per week).
On the subject of your diet, whilst the example you’ve provided certainly isn’t bad, its calorie/energy content simply won’t fuel your intended exercise regime. As such, you need to eat more.
Although you say that you don’t have a kitchen, surely your college accommodation benefits from basic amenities, such as an oven/hob?
On the assumption that it does, when preparing your evening meal, possibly consider adding quinoa to your salads. Not only will it leave you with a greater sense of satiation, it’s one of only two plant based sources (the other is soy) that are complete proteins (where all amino acids are present).
Other evening meal ideas could present themselves in the form of bean salads, since they’ll provide a healthy blend of protein and carbohydrate.
Other ways to increase your calorie consumption, which you’ll need to in order to support your exercise regime, can include consumption of nuts and dried fruit. Moreover, a handful of raisins, consumed shortly before you exercise will provide you with simple sugars, needed to maintain energy levels throughout your endeavour. An extra protein shake (preferably pure whey powder), would also help to ensure that you’re receiving sufficient amino acids to assist with growth and repair of muscle fibres.
On the subject of nuts, due to their energy density, a 50g portion will increase your calorie consumption by around 300Kcal. However, due to level of healthy fat and protein they contain, don’t concern yourself too greatly over their calorie content.
So, to exercise. Don’t take my comments to heart, since they’re certainly not meant as criticism, however, your cardio regime is far too excessive.
I can appreciate the reasons behind why you’d want to embark upon gruelling 2 hour sessions, thinking it’ll burn a host of calories and fat in the process. Unfortunately, that’s not how cardio exercise works.
After 45 minutes of steady state cardio you’ll have no doubt depleted glycogen reserves, after which your body turns to burning fat, in order to fuel your endeavour. However, since burning fat is considerably harder, the speed and rate at which you exercise become slower and you end up fatigued, in addition to being annoyed at yourself for not accomplishing what you’d set out to achieve.
While steady state cardio is useful for building endurance and overall levels of fitness, it’s not the best way to burn fat quickly and conveniently.
The quickest way to utilise fat during exercise is to introduce interval training and HIIT into your cardio routine. Granted, without knowing your current level of fitness, HIIT may currently be beyond you, however, the introduction of intervals certainly isn’t. Equally, by introducing interval training, as levels of cardiovascular fitness improve so too will the intensity at which those intervals are performed. As such, increased fitness will eventually allow you to perform HIIT.
The reason HIIT is so effective at burning fat is due to the fact it exercises your body’s anaerobic energy system. During anaerobic activity, since the body is unable to deliver adequate levels of oxygen to working muscles, it turns to glycogen (stored in the muscles) to provide the working muscles with fuel.
Due to the intensity of hard intervals, glycogen is quickly depleted. Once depleted, the body turns to utilising fat in order to provide the working muscles with fuel during intense periods. The reason HIIT can only be sustained for 20-25 minutes is due to the fact it severely depletes glycogen levels and severely eats into existing levels of body fat, in addition to creating a huge energy/calorie deficit.
In the hours after HIIT, due to hugely increased insulin sensitivity, the carbohydrate consumed is used to replace severely depleted glycogen reserves, thus reducing the risk of it being stored as fat. Depending upon the intensity of hard intervals, insulin sensitivity can remain raised for up to 72 hours.
Whilst not as dramatic, interval training works similarly to HIIT, in that increases the uptake of glucose and fat throughout the endeavour, largely since interval training is performed in the presence of oxygen. However, as fitness improves, intervals can be performed at a higher intensity, thus increasing uptake of glucose and fat as you approach your aerobic threshold.
As such, I’d recommend that you reduce cardio sessions to 45 minutes, particularly when performing intervals. Don’t worry, 45 minutes of interval training will provide you with a satisfying workout, leaving you fatigued at the end. By performing at a slightly higher intensity for 2 minutes, followed by a minute recovery at a lower intensity, you’ll happily fatigue yourself.
Instead, I’d suggest performing something like this:
Sunday: Weight lifting routine (always performed before cardio), followed by 45 minutes of interval training (15 minutes on elliptical/15 minutes on bike/15 minutes on the treadmill.
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 45 minutes of interval training (As Sunday)/ Core workout.
Wednesday: 30 minutes of interval training (ten minutes on bike/elliptical/treadmill & core workout, followed by 30 minute swim.
Thursday: As Sunday.
Friday: Rest.
Saturday: 2 mile run/core workout.
Don’t worry about the considerable reduction in workout time, since it’s more than sufficient in allowing you to achieve your weight loss goals. Besides, you only have 20lbs to lose, something that you should comfortably achieve by June with the introduction of interval and HIIT.
This way we can help you better.