Hi, I'm new here and I just want to start off by saying hello to everyone. Everyone seems really nice, and respectable to others and they're situation. Well I just started working out on 1/17 and I was at 217 naked, this morning I was at 208.6 naked. I will state my routine and eating lifestyle below. The only thing I do is make sure i never eat more than 6 oz, and I use a digital weigh scale to make sure I dont go over. Is this bad? Should I be counting my calories and counting and adding my carbs, and protien. My goal is about 158-165 by the end of may.. so thats four months from now, and that is an average of about 13.5-11 pds. a month. Which isnt that bad. I dont think. Anyways is my goal realistic or not? I will be starting college in the fall and I want to have a really nice toned bod. I'm not looking to be bulky or anything. Just really lean. Well thanks for any advice.

Training : Monday-Friday, Rest: Sat., Sun.
Time of Training : 5:30a - 6:45a
Sleep : 9:15,9:30- 5:10, 5:20
Water intake : about 10 to 14 cups (8 oz. per)
Green Tea with caff. : Once in the morning

7:00a- Protein/Glutamine Cocktail with Multi-vit
8:00a- 1/2 cup oatmeal/ 1/2 soy milk (Twice a Week with 4 oz O.J.)
10:25a- 5 oz. tilipia (Fish) cooked in Pan
12:30p- 1 oz. raw almonds/ 5 oz boiled brocc.
2:30p- 1 can tuna/ slice whole wheat bread
4:30p- 3 oz. boiled green beans/3 oz of baked chicken in olive oil
7:30p- 6 oz. yellow croaker (fish) baked in pan.

every other day the diet is as follows

10:25a- 3 oz boiled brocc/3 oz boiled green beans
12:30p- 2 oz almonds / 1 can of tuna
2:30p- 6 oz shrimp, steamed
4:30p- 6 oz ground turkey, with one slice of bread(whole wheat)
7:30p- 7 oz sirloin steak (Ground) cooked in olive oil

and every day
8:45 p- Protein/glutamine cocktail in water with multi-vit

Routine:
I have an array of workouts mostly D.B. anyways.

Monday : chest workout (super setting) i do about 4 exercises and superset two each. Weight :moderate to heavy. until failure. 30 mins.
then eliptical machine for 35 to 45 mins.
Tuesday : biceps and triceps (super setting) same thing as above except i'm doing 3 exercises per body part. brish walk for 30-45 mins.
Wed: same routine but Back, and hammys and glutes (super setting)
then eliptical for 30-45min.
Thurs: abs/shoulders (super setting)
then brisk walk for 30 -45 min.
Friday: calves, quads, forearms
then eliptical for 30-45 min.

thanks for your help people,
Dr. danni

id say start counting...i went months and months WITHOUT COUNTING and yes i still lost weight , and packed on muscle..but i didnt know my numbers...now im counting and i realised i was eating too little...its also nice to know exactly what works and what doesnt

You don't need to count every day. Calculate how many calories are in your typical satisfying day, and if it seems to be a reasonable amount, build your food intake around that plan.

I've never "counted"calories, but I check my daily calorie intake and macronutrients once in a while, just to see where it's at. I allow wide variations on food intake based on how hungry I am and what I'm doing that day. Works best for me.

I don't understand the diet you posted. The first list there sounds really good, but right below it, the vegetable intake drops.

Never eat more than 6 oz? Why is that?

Yikes....you pretty much dropped carbs off the map (especially with meal plan 2). At least you have veggies in the first but your every other day diet looks kinda bad....it's like all protein and a little fat. I hope you're taking a multi-vit.

You'll lose water quickly with this diet...not necessarily fat. You may want to profile your intake for at least a week just to get an idea of the balance of prot, carbs and fat.

You should shoot for 1-2lb/week weight loss to help maintain muscle. So in that time frame...you should weigh by May ~176 - 192 lbs.

Don't crash diet! Set realistic goals.

I would suggest the following:
If you are a beginner or you are still trying to build a diet plan, then yes I would highly recommend you count calories..
Why, you ask?
..Because it takes a long time to determine how your body reacts, and it is also very easy to over/under-eat. For example...you decide to have almonds with lunch and you sit down and eat almonds until you're full not realizing that you've just had 3oz which totals out at around 500 calories! Not realizing this, you repeat the process and thus limit your efficiency.

If you are experienced or you are in a maintanence phase, don't count..at that point you'll be like Guava..you'll know about what you're taking in and the 'stakes' aren't as high. If you mess up one or two days you'll either know for sure you're doing it or it won't matter as much. Like Guava said, she tests occasionally..but she also knows her body *very* well and knows what acceptable portions are, acceptable macros, etc. without "trying"...most people aren't like that.

It's important to count calories for at least a short while just to understand the fundamentals of calorie density. Eventually you'll reach your goals and you'll want to eat junk or eat out every once in a while; And you'll need the knowledge you gained from counting cailories to make better "freestyle" nutrition choices. I think that's what this stuff is reallly all about - integrating proper nutrition for life, not just twelve weeks at a time. Counting calories for a little while is the basis for transposing this stuff into practical, everyday, usable, health improving knowledge. :tu:

Oh yeah, also if you're changing your body comp with a sizable drop in weight like this - you'll need some tricks later that will involve an understanding of your calorie consumption and the manipulation of those calories. In other words, inevitable adjustments will require calorie counting eventually, so I'd advise starting to count now.

No. :nod:

It's important to count calories for at least a short while just to understand the fundamentals of calorie density. Eventually you'll reach your goals and you'll want to eat junk or eat out every once in a while; And you'll need the knowledge you gained from counting cailories to make better "freestyle" nutrition choices. I think that's what this stuff is reallly all about - integrating proper nutrition for life, not just twelve weeks at a time. Counting calories for a little while is the basis for transposing this stuff into practical, everyday, usable, health improving knowledge. :tu:

Oh yeah, also if you're changing your body comp with a sizable drop in weight like this - you'll need some tricks later that will involve an understanding of your calorie consumption and the manipulation of those calories. In other words, inevitable adjustments will require calorie counting eventually, so I'd advise starting to count now.

Brilliant!

Thank you for all of the responses. Really informative. I'll try to answer or reason some of your concerns. The 6 oz's limit is what I got from a local yoga instructor to get rid of my stomach. Which sounds logical to me but he could be very wrong. As for the crash dieting response, I dont think I am crash dieting. I'm feeling full after my meals and I dont feel weaker, I'm noticing endurance increases when I run and do the eliptical machine. And I am taking a multi-vit in the morning and at night. The only difference I'm noticing is that the rate of my weight loss is slowing down alot. I was losing on average around .5-.8 ibs a day, now for this week its only going at about .2-.4 lbs.

I will start to keep track of my caloric intake to see what amount I'm eating. I was curious John Stone shows in his stats that he dropped 14 lbs. in march of 2003, would that be considered unheathly? Just wanted to see what ya'll thought about that.

I am not a beginner at working out and training, in fact its quite the opposite when it comes to that kind of stuff. I think thats one of the reasons I was losing so much weight in these first two weeks, because of the way i'm mixing up my cardio and weight lifting. My body is really responsive to these kinds of techniques. I've always been the bulldog looking guy and finally i just let myself go.

But I want to try a get skinny, well thanks for the advice and I will put it to good use, hopefully I'll be able to post some postivie results in the next few weeks. Thank You

Dr. danni

As was pointed out, six ounces of almonds is considerably different than six ounces of broccoli!

Losing 14 pound in a month will partly be muscle mass. John regrets losing that much so quickly. Being skinny is neither healthy nor attractive. Focus on losing FAT, not losing weight.

Where are all of ya'll getting these accurate numbers on produce such as red meat, and chicken, and fish. I only buy fresh stuff directly from a butcher or go to an asian fish market. And what about almonds and nuts. When I go to Whole Foods I buy straight out of there fresh nut storage boxes, and they do not list any kind of caloric information. What about brocc. and green beans, and fruit? I just would like to know where all these numbers are coming from. Help the clueless one, please

dr. danni

www.fitday.com

Thanks guava...