Hi everyone. Upon discovering this site a few days ago, I decided to commit to becoming more healthy. A little info about myself: I'm 20 years old, about 5' 10" and 170lbs., I don't have a bf% but I'm sure its around/above 20%. I have, and have had since childhood, fat localized in the stomach and chest areas. The rest of my body doesn't appear to have too much fat.

I'm interested in both losing fat and putting on some lean muscle mass. Also relevant is that I'm a vegetarian. I realize this may create some limitations as far as bulking up, but that is low on my priority list at the moment. I'd like to lose the fat and gain as much muscle as possible before I contemplate becoming omnivorous.

After doing a bit of research, I've decided to go with a workout/diet plan very similar to the one outlined in this (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kelly3.htm) article. It's very similar to John's on fat loss regiment.

I'm looking for some feedback/tips about my goals in general as well as this particular plan - what do you all think? I look forward to pushing myself and having the wealth of information available on this site.

thanks everyone,
Ender85

Hey Ender,

Welcome to the forums! Make sure you read the quality info around here, it can be very helpful in getting going.

I'm looking for some feedback/tips about my goals in general

this is a good place to start

What are your goals?

"Lose some fat and gain some muscle" is not a very good goal. Concrete, specific goals are better than vague, abstract goals.

Come up with a goal that is specific, concrete, and mentions a specific length of time or deadline. The literature around here and the media gallery should give you a good idea of what is possible or plausible.

This is especially important to you, because your dietary restrictions are going to have some impact on how quickly and by what means you can achieve specific goals (although it doesn't totally hamstring you as much as you think if you make your goals well enough). You won't be able to decide whether or not it is worth it to you to "become omnivorous" until you come up with a concrete goal.

Because if you said "Gain as much muscle and lose as much fat as possible as quickly as possible" somebody would be right in telling you to try giving up vegitarianism. If you said "Get to 10% bodyfat within six months on a vegetarian diet," then you can see how criticizing vegitarianism loses the centerstage, so to speak.

Are you vegetarian or vegan? It'd be helpful to us to have a clear idea of what you are eating.

So, yeah, my first two questions for you are what are your goals, and what are your restrictions? Without those, you can't go much farther.

:gl:

So, yeah, my first two questions for you are what are your goals, and what are your restrictions? Without those, you can't go much farther.



I'm an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, so eggs, dairy, and nuts are fine. No chicken, fish, turkey, beef, etc. though.

As far as goals, I don't know what is possible, and I can't really define my starting point quantitatively, as I have no calipers/bf% tool. I'd use weight, except that if fat is lost and lean muscle gained, and my weight doesn't change much - I won't be dissapointed. I could guess, until I get measurements for bf%, that I'm at about 22% right now, and would like to get to 12-13% if possible. That number may change as I see what kind of results I get and what is possible, but for now, I don't think thats impossible.

Thoughts?

Thanks again,
Ender85 :tucool:

Thanks for the info on the diet. The fact that you're not straight vegan is going to make things simpler.

Take some pictures of yourself. They'll be very valuable ways of determining your progress - because sometimes you're going to need a way of telling for sure other than the mirror. That'll also help you figure out where you are right now with regards to where you want to be.

We definitely have to narrow down those goals a bit.

Now, since you're new at this, you'll probably add a little bit of muscle if you lift, regardless of what you eat, but let's assume your first priority is to lose some fat. That, I think, would be a good general first direction to go in.

Do you have any sort of big event in the middle term future, say 4-6 months out? I recommend setting up a specific time interval as part of any major goal - having something to look forward to can be a powerful motivator.

Did you go to the media gallery and look at some of the transformations already here?

A good rule of thumb is that you can lose 1-2 pounds of body fat a week if you are really good about your food and your exercise. Since you're only at 170 (some of these guys have started up in the mid-300s), it might be a little slower for you, but probably not too much just starting out.

So, we're still working on goals (you're not off the hook yet! ;) ) pick a time interval, take some pictures, and let's get some concrete, specific goals on the table.

Thanks for the help here PeteDawg :)

Let's try the end of this coming fall quarter of college. That gives me right around 5 months: From now until Dec. 10th. Not an exceptionally special occasion, but it gives me a good time frame.

I'll get the pictures taken today - and I'll try to continue taking them every week to monitor progress.

Other than the above, what can I do to solidify my goals? I'll see what I can do about getting calipers or some other bf% tool. If I can't get one - what can I use? weight?

Thanks a lot :claplow:
Ender85

You can make a goal such as "lose 15 pounds of fat" easily enough. You can't really trust the scale on a day to day basis, but over the course of a few months, you can generally tell where things are going if you take pictures.

You can use www.mybodycomp.com to keep track of progress with a tape measure if you don't have another way of tracking BF% - it isn't the most precise thing in the world, but at least it's a record that's not totally scale-centric.