Kebas
Sun, January 23rd, 2005, 02:29 AM
Sorry about the long winded post, just giving as much detail as possible. My name is Chris, 19 years old, medium build, 5'10, not sure what body type (endomorphic, etc?). I'm new to the forums. I actually got motivated into weight loss in a strange way...I took pills for my ADHD and it appeared to speed up my metabolism, and I started to loose weight. I took this medicine for two months, then eventually withdrew from it. This was my motivation to start loosing weight. Now, Ive been cutting down massively and I'm eating healthy (Well compared to what I was eating before!). Before I started taking the medicine, I was at 235 lbs and I am 5'10. Within 3 months, I was down to 195. I was not starving myself, nor hugely changing my eating habits....this was mostly the medicine doing this to me (to my knowledge). I began to cut pretty much all sweets and candy out of my snacks, and I feel EXTREMELY guilty now eating these kinds of things (Once in a while I give in, and eat say...10 potato chips, rarely). Right now, I hover around the 185 range. I got a gym membership and started right out when I hit about 190.
Anyway, I had a few questions, and could not extract too much direct information from the forums. These are my current habits. I eat 3 meals a day (Reading these forums I discovered I should be having about 5, which is hard for me most days considering school and work). Three meals usually consist of after 12 PM (Im a night person, I usually stay up all night and dont wake up until about 12 PM...I get the nightly amount of sleep though. I plan to reform this and be up much earlier). I eat tuna fish, sandwiches w/ low fat mayo on wheat bread and 1 slice cheese, canned soups that are low in fat and sodium, chicken when avalible and small portions of whatever my parents make for supper (Sometimes fatty stuff which I stay away from). I endulge in fruits, having sometimes 5 apples a day. Also, I eat low fat yogurts and low calorie/sugar Ice thingies.
Gymwise, I have been doing 45 minutes on the bike. Says my heart rate is around 130-140 while im pedaling, NO clue if thats low intensity, high intensity, but i dont have any breathing problems doing it, and im finding it harder to get my heart rate that high doing the same resistance now. Also, I dont begin to sweat until about 20 minutes into the workout, my legs just feel sore while im pedaling after a while. I usually do my workout weights (Not extremely strenuous though) after my cardio. I do this about 3 times a week. I have only been doing upper body exersizes (Chest, abs, arms, back, etc) and completely not doing lower body (besides doing 50 squats every night, thats about it.) Nightly, I do 30 pushups (For some reason, I still find it very tiring to do pushups....even after 3 months of doing it every night), 235 crunches, and the 50 squats.
Today I tried the treadmill. I set it to 4.7 speed and a 2.0 incline - this being brisk walking for me and not having too much trouble. I did this for 45 minutes...and about 5 minutes of it (on and off of course) could be considered high intensity (I set the machine to 6.5 and 7.0 speed, slower running). The machine stated I burned about 410 calories in that workout as opposed to the 220 I usually get on the bike. It said my heart rate was hanging around 140-150 most of the time and when I sped up it said 180 (I am inclined to think this was wrong as my heart wasnt beating and I felt perfectly fine besides a LITTLE out of breath) In addition to this, I felt like I had a MUCH more fulfilling workout and felt better about myself.
Thus far, the approach seems to be working, I have kept loosing weight, and have kept it off. I in no way starve myself, and when I am hungry, I eat. I basically "listen to my body" and try to fill it with the healthiest things I can find (Well, I show SOME restraint, but you know what I mean). I have hit a plateau now at 185 lbs, and I have been staying and maintaining that weight for a few weeks now. I have seen noticable gains in muscle mass in my arms, and (under the smaller man boobs) some chest muscle. I still have fat in my stomach, lovehandle, chest, and very upper leg area.
Now after all this I have a few questions....From reading this site, I have discovered that doing weightlifting after cardio is a bad thing. The negative, is the gym is about 25 minutes from my house, and I cant afford the gas to keep going back and forth, so I have a problem there. Any advice how to mitigate cardio and weightlifting, yet make less trips to the gym, or some way I can do them close together, or is this alltogether impossible (unless I wanted to do something unhealthy). Is it unhealthy because I might be too tired to do weights, or is this somehow impeding my progress. I also know that another weakness in this routine is that I do not work my lower body - I plan on changing that this week and shifting do doing upper twice a week and lower once a week. Another question I have - is there any benefits to running as opposed to the bike? As I said, I burned almost double the calories in the same time period, and I didnt feel like I was gunna die or anything (only felt tiredish when I pumped up the speed for minute and a half intervals) Is this too much cardio doing it 3 times a week or am I following the right road. My main questions are
1) My 185 plateau...my body APPEARS to still be thining down...is it possible that I am gaining some weight in muscle and loosing fat tissue (I had NO WORKOUT EXPERIENCE prior to the start of this, Hell I could barely lift the 45 bar straight when I went in the first time).
2) I seem to have "bitch tits" or gynomasticia or however it's spelled. Is it possible that this is excess fat? They have shrunk GREATLY in appearence and I am praying that it is just fat that is going to go away. RIght now, they are fairly small, not visible through a shirt, but they are still annoying as hell. As said, I still have a stomach (fairly decent sized even though I can suck it in completely now) so it MIGHT just be fat.
Again, sorry about the long winded post. Any comments/answer to a question would be greatly appreciated! Also, if I am reasking something in a previous post I apologize, but I searched and found no incredibly helpful answer to my questions here. Thanks!
P.S. I have NO clue what my body fat % is...an easy way to find out would be good too. I don't have a machine as of now -)
Anyway, I had a few questions, and could not extract too much direct information from the forums. These are my current habits. I eat 3 meals a day (Reading these forums I discovered I should be having about 5, which is hard for me most days considering school and work). Three meals usually consist of after 12 PM (Im a night person, I usually stay up all night and dont wake up until about 12 PM...I get the nightly amount of sleep though. I plan to reform this and be up much earlier). I eat tuna fish, sandwiches w/ low fat mayo on wheat bread and 1 slice cheese, canned soups that are low in fat and sodium, chicken when avalible and small portions of whatever my parents make for supper (Sometimes fatty stuff which I stay away from). I endulge in fruits, having sometimes 5 apples a day. Also, I eat low fat yogurts and low calorie/sugar Ice thingies.
Gymwise, I have been doing 45 minutes on the bike. Says my heart rate is around 130-140 while im pedaling, NO clue if thats low intensity, high intensity, but i dont have any breathing problems doing it, and im finding it harder to get my heart rate that high doing the same resistance now. Also, I dont begin to sweat until about 20 minutes into the workout, my legs just feel sore while im pedaling after a while. I usually do my workout weights (Not extremely strenuous though) after my cardio. I do this about 3 times a week. I have only been doing upper body exersizes (Chest, abs, arms, back, etc) and completely not doing lower body (besides doing 50 squats every night, thats about it.) Nightly, I do 30 pushups (For some reason, I still find it very tiring to do pushups....even after 3 months of doing it every night), 235 crunches, and the 50 squats.
Today I tried the treadmill. I set it to 4.7 speed and a 2.0 incline - this being brisk walking for me and not having too much trouble. I did this for 45 minutes...and about 5 minutes of it (on and off of course) could be considered high intensity (I set the machine to 6.5 and 7.0 speed, slower running). The machine stated I burned about 410 calories in that workout as opposed to the 220 I usually get on the bike. It said my heart rate was hanging around 140-150 most of the time and when I sped up it said 180 (I am inclined to think this was wrong as my heart wasnt beating and I felt perfectly fine besides a LITTLE out of breath) In addition to this, I felt like I had a MUCH more fulfilling workout and felt better about myself.
Thus far, the approach seems to be working, I have kept loosing weight, and have kept it off. I in no way starve myself, and when I am hungry, I eat. I basically "listen to my body" and try to fill it with the healthiest things I can find (Well, I show SOME restraint, but you know what I mean). I have hit a plateau now at 185 lbs, and I have been staying and maintaining that weight for a few weeks now. I have seen noticable gains in muscle mass in my arms, and (under the smaller man boobs) some chest muscle. I still have fat in my stomach, lovehandle, chest, and very upper leg area.
Now after all this I have a few questions....From reading this site, I have discovered that doing weightlifting after cardio is a bad thing. The negative, is the gym is about 25 minutes from my house, and I cant afford the gas to keep going back and forth, so I have a problem there. Any advice how to mitigate cardio and weightlifting, yet make less trips to the gym, or some way I can do them close together, or is this alltogether impossible (unless I wanted to do something unhealthy). Is it unhealthy because I might be too tired to do weights, or is this somehow impeding my progress. I also know that another weakness in this routine is that I do not work my lower body - I plan on changing that this week and shifting do doing upper twice a week and lower once a week. Another question I have - is there any benefits to running as opposed to the bike? As I said, I burned almost double the calories in the same time period, and I didnt feel like I was gunna die or anything (only felt tiredish when I pumped up the speed for minute and a half intervals) Is this too much cardio doing it 3 times a week or am I following the right road. My main questions are
1) My 185 plateau...my body APPEARS to still be thining down...is it possible that I am gaining some weight in muscle and loosing fat tissue (I had NO WORKOUT EXPERIENCE prior to the start of this, Hell I could barely lift the 45 bar straight when I went in the first time).
2) I seem to have "bitch tits" or gynomasticia or however it's spelled. Is it possible that this is excess fat? They have shrunk GREATLY in appearence and I am praying that it is just fat that is going to go away. RIght now, they are fairly small, not visible through a shirt, but they are still annoying as hell. As said, I still have a stomach (fairly decent sized even though I can suck it in completely now) so it MIGHT just be fat.
Again, sorry about the long winded post. Any comments/answer to a question would be greatly appreciated! Also, if I am reasking something in a previous post I apologize, but I searched and found no incredibly helpful answer to my questions here. Thanks!
P.S. I have NO clue what my body fat % is...an easy way to find out would be good too. I don't have a machine as of now -)