I must have stared at all the folders on the forum for a good few hours since I first logged on, last thursday. There's tons of excellent advice here. committed individuals, and even more encouragingly, some absolutely astounding progress been made (and still being made) by all the forum members here.

I had a gut reaction, too. I wanted desperately to be like John and all the other members on the forum who've totally reshaped themselves.

But then I was faced with the problem of what exactly I do to go about becoming an 'after' pic instead of just staying a 'before'.


To give you some background info, I'm 24 yeasrs old now and 5' 11", I've never been particularly thin, maybe for a short period around the age of 16 or 17, before I discovered drinking vast amounts of beer on friday night was actually kind of fun.

Almost every week for as long as I can remember I've looked in the mirror and not been happy with the way I look, or vowed "I'll do something about my weight, soon."

I must have weighed roughly 14 stone (still overweight) when I went to university in 1999, and steadily progressed to over 15 stone when I left. Well, over the last 2 years since leaving, I somehow managed to hit my all-time highest weight of 16 stone 10 (about 234 lbs? - sorry, I'm terrible at converting). That was about 2 weeks ago, and I made a conscious effort to watch what I eat, I've lost 8 pounds since then, Which has spurred me on a bit, but I won't be truly happy unless when I get on the scales next friday morning that number 16 has been banished and I'm back into the '15s'.

I started Kickboxing about 9 months ago and I've gone almost religiously twice a week since that time. I love it and class it as my main motivation in life these days, progressing three belts since I started. I would have thought this alone would have helped me, but as I pointed out, I managed to rise to about 234 lbs, while still staying very active weekly.
While the kickboxing has not let me lose the weight to the extent that I would have liked, I must acknowledge the greater level of fitness I have now. Beginning, warm up included 10 sit ups, 10 push ups and 10 squat thrusts. I could not complete 10 push ups back then. I really could not, the warm up was enough to leave me in a bathe of sweat. More recently, at my latest grading, we had to perfom 30 of each exercise as a basic display of agility and I could complete them with comparitve ease. So I know my body, stamina and strength have all benefitted, and more than likely, my muscle tone (although I cannot tell under my body fat).

As I said, 2 weeks ago I made a decision to alter my diet in addition to this exercise procedure. This is my main problem, as I am the original fussy eater, hate vegetables, not keen on fruit and am quite a fan of Guinness. Otherwise, I was not a very bad eater (IMO) I hardly snacked, I am not dependent on chocolate or other confectionary, really. But I guess those 'few' cookies or muffins or 'just that one' snickers all boot the boot in at some point.

My regular diet of

breakfast - two slices white buttered toast (if i had it at all)
lunch - four sandwhiches (usually chicken mayo, tuna mayo, peanut butter), pack of crisps, flapjack, mini lunchbox cheese - or maybe even a McDonalds if I forgot to prepare my own
snack - mars or snickers mid afternoon, or maybe thick chocolate chip cookies or muffins
usually severaly cups of coffee (two sugars)

has changed (as of last week) to

breakfast - Cheerios - or other wholegrain cereal w/ skimmed milk
snack - apple or banana
lunch - 2 sandwhiches on wholemeal or 'best of both' bread, muller light yoghurt and an apple - (or) I actually made myself a chicken salad (first time I've EVER eaten a salad - wasn't bad)
snack - another banana
I'm now refusing all 'treats' at work and have stopped drinking coffee

So while, I'm trying to basically watch my calories, I don't feel there's any structure to my current diet and nutrition;
Now wherever I look I see - Atkins diet - GI diet - low carbs - high carbs - low protein - high protein etc, etc...
I'm at a loss to understand what I'm meant to follow there's a few contradictionary theories i've been told, or read.

This is my quandry, I would love to be able to set up for myself, a diet plan, a menu, even, for a month at a time, where I would know exactly what I should and would be eating for the week, so I wouldn't even be tempted to wander off the path, and hopefully aid my weight/fat loss.

This will obviously go hand in hand with my exercise regime, which I will try to refine/outline at another time. But I'm confident that I can achieve results this time, as there is to be a full contact kickboxing event held by our club this october and I intend to take part. Just in passing coversation one of the other guys training, he mentioned I'd probably need to lose at least a stone and a half before then or be face with a rather large opponent. He also said something about 3 mile runs but I'll try to wipe that image from my mind for the moment.

I'll post a before photo soon, but please, any advice you can all offer me will be greatly appreciated. I really do not want to be one of thesee people who begin something and don't finish it. I have a lot of fat to burn, and I really think I can do it.

Longest first post ever? Sorry if it's been a bit of a chore to read, but I had a lot to get out.

Welcome.

No worries about the long post. The more info we have the better we can all help. And you will find a lot of help here my friend.

Your new diet sure looks better than your old one, that's for sure. What's for dinner though? Looks like a pretty low calorie diet to me. At your weight I would ASSUME you should be eating more food than this, but without getting a calculator out and figuring the calories/pro/fat/carbs I'm not 100% sure.

Are you lifting weights? I would recommend that you begin this immediately. Weightlifting helps build muscle, and to make a long story short it will help you shed fat faster.

I'm going to leave it at that for now, but I'll pop back in in a while and see what others say and check in on ya. Good luck!

Welcome! And congrats on your start.

First off, read the stickies at the top of each forum. They will provide some starting points. You diet will be the most important. Keep reading.



I must have stared at all the folders on the forum for a good few hours since I first logged on, last thursday. There's tons of excellent advice here. committed individuals, and even more encouragingly, some absolutely astounding progress been made (and still being made) by all the forum members here.

I had a gut reaction, too. I wanted desperately to be like John and all the other members on the forum who've totally reshaped themselves.

But then I was faced with the problem of what exactly I do to go about becoming an 'after' pic instead of just staying a 'before'.


To give you some background info, I'm 24 yeasrs old now and 5' 11", I've never been particularly thin, maybe for a short period around the age of 16 or 17, before I discovered drinking vast amounts of beer on friday night was actually kind of fun.

Almost every week for as long as I can remember I've looked in the mirror and not been happy with the way I look, or vowed "I'll do something about my weight, soon."

I must have weighed roughly 14 stone (still overweight) when I went to university in 1999, and steadily progressed to over 15 stone when I left. Well, over the last 2 years since leaving, I somehow managed to hit my all-time highest weight of 16 stone 10 (about 234 lbs? - sorry, I'm terrible at converting). That was about 2 weeks ago, and I made a conscious effort to watch what I eat, I've lost 8 pounds since then, Which has spurred me on a bit, but I won't be truly happy unless when I get on the scales next friday morning that number 16 has been banished and I'm back into the '15s'.

I started Kickboxing about 9 months ago and I've gone almost religiously twice a week since that time. I love it and class it as my main motivation in life these days, progressing three belts since I started. I would have thought this alone would have helped me, but as I pointed out, I managed to rise to about 234 lbs, while still staying very active weekly.
While the kickboxing has not let me lose the weight to the extent that I would have liked, I must acknowledge the greater level of fitness I have now. Beginning, warm up included 10 sit ups, 10 push ups and 10 squat thrusts. I could not complete 10 push ups back then. I really could not, the warm up was enough to leave me in a bathe of sweat. More recently, at my latest grading, we had to perfom 30 of each exercise as a basic display of agility and I could complete them with comparitve ease. So I know my body, stamina and strength have all benefitted, and more than likely, my muscle tone (although I cannot tell under my body fat).

As I said, 2 weeks ago I made a decision to alter my diet in addition to this exercise procedure. This is my main problem, as I am the original fussy eater, hate vegetables, not keen on fruit and am quite a fan of Guinness. Otherwise, I was not a very bad eater (IMO) I hardly snacked, I am not dependent on chocolate or other confectionary, really. But I guess those 'few' cookies or muffins or 'just that one' snickers all boot the boot in at some point.

My regular diet of

breakfast - two slices white buttered toast (if i had it at all)
lunch - four sandwhiches (usually chicken mayo, tuna mayo, peanut butter), pack of crisps, flapjack, mini lunchbox cheese - or maybe even a McDonalds if I forgot to prepare my own
snack - mars or snickers mid afternoon, or maybe thick chocolate chip cookies or muffins
usually severaly cups of coffee (two sugars)

has changed (as of last week) to

breakfast - Cheerios - or other wholegrain cereal w/ skimmed milk
snack - apple or banana
lunch - 2 sandwhiches on wholemeal or 'best of both' bread, muller light yoghurt and an apple - (or) I actually made myself a chicken salad (first time I've EVER eaten a salad - wasn't bad)
snack - another banana
I'm now refusing all 'treats' at work and have stopped drinking coffee

So while, I'm trying to basically watch my calories, I don't feel there's any structure to my current diet and nutrition;
Now wherever I look I see - Atkins diet - GI diet - low carbs - high carbs - low protein - high protein etc, etc...
I'm at a loss to understand what I'm meant to follow there's a few contradictionary theories i've been told, or read.

This is my quandry, I would love to be able to set up for myself, a diet plan, a menu, even, for a month at a time, where I would know exactly what I should and would be eating for the week, so I wouldn't even be tempted to wander off the path, and hopefully aid my weight/fat loss.

This will obviously go hand in hand with my exercise regime, which I will try to refine/outline at another time. But I'm confident that I can achieve results this time, as there is to be a full contact kickboxing event held by our club this october and I intend to take part. Just in passing coversation one of the other guys training, he mentioned I'd probably need to lose at least a stone and a half before then or be face with a rather large opponent. He also said something about 3 mile runs but I'll try to wipe that image from my mind for the moment.

I'll post a before photo soon, but please, any advice you can all offer me will be greatly appreciated. I really do not want to be one of thesee people who begin something and don't finish it. I have a lot of fat to burn, and I really think I can do it.

Longest first post ever? Sorry if it's been a bit of a chore to read, but I had a lot to get out.

By the way, one more thing. Coffee does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. If you don't abuse it, and especially if you drink it black, and of course assuming you are not too sensitive to it, it should be okay. Just be sure you are drinking more water than normal. Speaking of, your water intake should be high. I myself aim for at least a gallon per day, but you probably don't need quite that much. If you drink water with every meal and have a few extra glasses here and there you should be okay.

Thanks for the support, already, guys.

as for my dinner, I left that blank, as generally I do eat pretty well when I get home, generally round meals. To fit in with my new 'diet' portions are generally just getting smaller. I don't tend to have a problem with snacking at home, either as I'm either out kickboxing, or at a band rehearsal or busying myself other places, and when my mind's busy I don't even think of food. Just when I'm sat in work staring at the monitor, that's when I think of food.

And the coffee thing doesn't really bother me, I can take it or leave it, and when i was having double sugar each time, I thought it was better to leave it. I'll have a cup if i really need it, but that's been once these last two weeks. And I've been drinking huge amounts of water for a few years now, That's all I really drink. I have a cup of tea when i wake up, one when I get home, one mid evening, and the rest is all water.

which, unfortunately brings me to my starting photos, they're not pretty, i'm afraid. You can click on these for bigger versions, if you really need to.

http://www.tehbest.com/images/newbody/start/sm_front.jpg (http://www.tehbest.com/images/newbody/start/front.jpg) http://www.tehbest.com/images/newbody/start/sm_side.jpg (http://www.tehbest.com/images/newbody/start/side.jpg) http://www.tehbest.com/images/newbody/start/sm_back.jpg (http://www.tehbest.com/images/newbody/start/back.jpg)

In all honesty when I read your first post I pictured a much fatter guy. You're not far away from a great physique in my opinion.

I am pretty sure that 12-15 weeks of good diet, hard training, and proper rest would have you looking unbelievable. It doesn't look like you hold much (if any) fat on your legs. Looks like you have a naturally mesomorphic build. (??)

I am far from an expert. I just started my own transformation on April 21st of this year and have not posted anything about it here yet.

But, given the similarity of our situations: same height, same starting weight and very similar look in terms of how and where my body holds its fat, I will tell you some of the mistakes I think I have made so far and maybe you can avoid them. (Others on the forum can feel free to correct me if I am leading you astray.)

1. FAT LOSS not WEIGHT LOSS:
Up unitl now, I have looked at this as 'weightloss' instead of 'fat loss' - consequently, I have lost weight - 25 pounds (almost 2 stones) in 2 1/2 months. But, I only recently realized that about 1/3 of it was muscle! :d_eek: That makes me thinner - but not much leaner. Plus, according to what I have read here, the less muscle I have, the more slowly I will burn fat.

2. EAT SMARTER, NOT LESS:
I relied more on diet than exercise to lose the 'weight' and ended up cutting too many calories. This contributed to losing muscle as well. When I finally started taking the time to count my calories, fat grams, protein grams and carb grams (macronutrients - following this forums advice) I realized I was eating about 600 calories less than the bare minimum my body needed each day(base metabolic rate), and was not getting enough of those calories from protein.

3. HAVE A PLAN:
While I am proud of myself, :claplow: and glad that I am at least going to the gym 3 days a week, I think that not having a specific resistance training program has slowed me down. I didn't feel very confident that what I was doing was working - this only makes it harder to really put in 100% at the gym.

4. BE PATIENT:
After 10 weeks, I realize that my initial goal was pretty unrealistic - I didn't really know any better, but I thought I could lose 40 lbs in 11 weeks. :p So, after reading more on these forums I realized that it isn't about the pounds, it is about the Body Fat, and that it will probably take several more months, at least, to reach my 'phase 1' goal of being under 15% body fat without losing any more muscle.