hi im 34 5ft 11 210 lbs, i need to get in shape ,,i have read articles about eating loads of caloires which goes against what i know of trying to lose weight, but thats where i have been going wrong. Is it pos to reduce my bodyfat from 26% to 10% in eight moths . I was to do cardio 5 times a week for 40- 50 mins , then once i have got used to that do hitt... eat a good diet and the right amount of calories..( is this called cutting??????) then once i have lost some weight start to build ssome muscle... Please guys i need your help i want to change my body before its too late. i can get up arly to do it or late in the day as long as i know im doing it right . :jumping:

thanks guys ,, trev

Yes, it is. It is possible to do it in 3 months, so 8 months is plenty of time.

Check this out:

http://www.naturalphysiques.com/gallery/misc/Evolution

If you look at the Feb/May I am over 20% body fat. The August is 10% body fat.

You can lose about 1 - 1.5 percent of your body fat each and every week. So 26 down to 10 could happen anywhere from 10 - 16 weeks if you are consistent.

A word of caution, however - don't consider the 26% to be precise. Standard margin of error is typically +/- 2% at that range, so you might be anywhere between 24 - 28 percent body fat.

Jeremy

Hey, let me tell you something: losing fat is easy! I got the opposite problem: I'm trying to gain lean mass, and that's much harder to do.

But just have faith and be self-confident and I assure you, you WILL reach your goal!

Go for it dude! :tu:

I was roughly in your shoes at the beginning of the year. I was 204 pounds and 23% fat. As of today I'm 178 pounds at 13% fat with the aim of hitting 10% before the end of May. I wish I could lose 1% or more a week, but real life tends to keep me from that. I tend to lose between .5% and .75% a week. I do 45 minutes of cardio every day, but once my wrist has healed, I plan to add my weight lifting back in.

What really helped me was keeping track of my fat every day and setting monthly goals. I'm shooting for 12% by the end of this month and I send an email to a number of friends and family at the end of each month with my latest stats. It really keeps me motivated when I know everyone will know exactly how I'm doing.

chigum, I'll be very interested to see how you go on as I'm starting off with quite similar stats (age 31, 224lbs, 5'11", 30%BF). Good luck and keep us updated.

JeremyLikness, you transformation between May'00 and Aug'00 is jawdropping and a definate motivator, congrats.

thanks for the replys guys,, but will it work, if i stick to waht i said above will it work,,, :claplow:

Well, its easy achieved if you...

Replace coke and sodas with water
Eat low fat/high protein food like chicken, salmon and shrimps
Dont eat high sugar/fat food like candy, pommes and pizza

You mentioned that time aint your problem?
That's very good because the best way of loosing fat is to take 45-60 min fast walks in the morning BEFORE eating breakfest.

In addition to that you should ofcouse to cardio training on bicycles or stepping machines, jogging in not a good option if you have an overweight since it will hurt your knees and bicycling is just as effective.

Hope it helps :)

Hmmm....Interesting choice of nickname you've got there, Tiss. I do hope you're not Norwegian....

just a question on this bodyfat loss, when you get lower and lower in body fat, shouldnt your weight loss decrease? or is 2-3lbs a week loss good for all bf% ?

To avoid muscle loss, yes, you should start to lose more slowly. As a rule of thumb, I try to focus on no more than 1% per week, with 0.5% being optimal, but that can vary depending on how far away from my goals I am, deadlines, etc.

At 250 pounds, 1% = 2.5 pounds / week, 0.5% = 1.25 lbs / week
At 200 pounds, 1% = 2 pounds / week, 0.5% = 1 lb / week
At 150 pounds, 1% = 1.5 pounds / week, 0.5% = 0.75 lbs / week

Jeremy

is there any basic guide as to what bf% you should start losing less at?
like from 20-12% its ok to lose 2-3lbs a week, then 12-10% 2lbs then sub-10 1lb a week?

I've found that it has become more difficult to lose the fat once you get to 12-13%. At least for me it is.

I started out about 2 years ago weighing 250lbs, 5'11", 29 years old. The first 50 lbs was easy. I was very motivated and it seemed to just melt right off. It took about 4 months. But once I hit 200 I started to plateau. I re-evaluated my diet and made adjustments there. I also re-evaluated my workout and made adjustments there too. Through my evaluations I also found that I had lost muscle during that time.

So to make my fat loss a bit easier I went on a bulking cycle to gain more muscle. For 3 months I had some good success in adding muscle and learned a lot through that process. But I also added a few pounds of fat.

After cutting that fat (but never dropped below 13%) I spent a few months messing around with various training programs and played with my diet just to see what happens. I pretty much maintained during that time and never really felt motivated. Then the holidays hit and I let myself go and just ate whatever I wanted.

Now I'm back to cutting and going from 14% to 12% wasn't easy. It took dedication and perseverance. I'm still struggling to get down below 10% (last weigh-in I was 190 @ about 11%BF). It's a little harder to stay motivated because little changes take time and aren't as noticeable. Losing 0.5% per week just doesn't seem like much and it takes a lot of work to do it. You just have to trust in your program and don't give up.

When I was going from 250 to 200 I had to buy new pants every month because they were literally falling off me. Now it takes a month's work just to move the belt one notch, if even that.

Hmmm....Interesting choice of nickname you've got there, Tiss. I do hope you're not Norwegian....

lol
Nei, vi får håpe det.

If you look at the Feb/May I am over 20% body fat. The August is 10% body fat.
Wow http://members.rogers.com/magistrate10/images/monocle.gif

That 3 month period is mindblowing, compared to the previous Aug99-May00 period. What did you start doing differently to achieve such rapid results?

I am often asked this, and 9 times out of 10, people don't like the answer. Their mind or belief system is simply not ready to accept it. However, the few who DO end up being able to make miraculous changes themselves ...

Here is the fact: the first 9 months I operated out of a "past" mentality. Meaning, I did not have full faith in what I could do, and I only had faith in the results I saw. Since I had quite a bit of fat to lose, that meant I really did not see results, so I did not believe I was doing the right thing. I lacked faith, and I was operating from the apst.

In May I met Jeff Seidman, a former champion of the EAS Physique Transformation competition. He was VERY inspirational, and convinced me that I COULD make the change if I believe in myself.

I continued using the same program (Body-for-LIFE) and same routine, etc. The difference? I operated not from the past, but in the NOW - out of faith in myself.

In one word, the difference between the first 9 months and the last 3 months? Belief. That was it. I just learned to belief in myself.

I was pursuing it from the angle of "If I lose fat, I will gain confidence and self-esteem." What I discovered the hard way, after struggling for awhile, was that I had to build my confidence and self-esteem FIRST in order to empower myself to lose the weight.

The mind is a powerful muscle!

Jeremy

I am often asked this, and 9 times out of 10, people don't like the answer. Their mind or belief system is simply not ready to accept it. However, the few who DO end up being able to make miraculous changes themselves ...

Here is the fact: the first 9 months I operated out of a "past" mentality. Meaning, I did not have full faith in what I could do, and I only had faith in the results I saw. Since I had quite a bit of fat to lose, that meant I really did not see results, so I did not believe I was doing the right thing. I lacked faith, and I was operating from the apst.

In May I met Jeff Seidman, a former champion of the EAS Physique Transformation competition. He was VERY inspirational, and convinced me that I COULD make the change if I believe in myself.

I continued using the same program (Body-for-LIFE) and same routine, etc. The difference? I operated not from the past, but in the NOW - out of faith in myself.

In one word, the difference between the first 9 months and the last 3 months? Belief. That was it. I just learned to belief in myself.

I was pursuing it from the angle of "If I lose fat, I will gain confidence and self-esteem." What I discovered the hard way, after struggling for awhile, was that I had to build my confidence and self-esteem FIRST in order to empower myself to lose the weight.

The mind is a powerful muscle!

Jeremy
Hmmm, interesting insight, Jeremy. I must admit that I fall into the group of people that don't like this answer. I am currently operating in the mindset that I will gain more confidence and self-esteem as I improve my physique.

Would you go so far as to say that the mindset you adopted is mutually exclusive with the one you held previously? That is to say, as your physique improved rapidly, did it or did it not have any effect on your self-confidence/self-esteem?

Ugh - this is a hard one to address. Very complicated - which is, in fact, why I am writing an entire book about it. I think the best way to "capture" what happened is through the series of interviews that happened right after my two most significant breakthroughs ...

Here is one:

http://www.bodychangers.com/jeremy_inter.shtml

And here is the other:

http://www.bodychangers.com/jeremy2_inter.shtml

Basically, the pursuit of fitness did help me gain my self-esteem and confidence. But not how people would expect. I was frustrated and hitting a brick wall. My greatest lesson learned was that for things to change, *I* had to change. So the pursuit of fitness forced me to look inward, and it was this inventory I took of myself and my actions that led to me slowly changing as a person. So it was the journey itself that created the inner reflection, and this process allowed me to evolve as a person while simultaneously empowering me to transform my physique. That is why I am calling the book "Become the Journey" because the phrase that became my mantra was "It's the journey, not the destination." Meaning - where I had failed in the past, it was operating from a "must get to x then all bets are off" whereas the new mentality was, "this is my new way of living." I literally began to embrace "doing the right thing" and understanding that a change in scale weight or body fat might come as a consequence of that, but the ultimate reward was my health and the better person I was becoming, rather than any movement on the scale.

I stopped looking at bads as "which food is bad" but rather, "how will this food help me?" which does change the way you might approach nutrition, etc. In my life, I learned how selfish I was and really took Bill Phillips advice to heart - that we should live by giving. This inspired me so much that I later flew across the country to Evansville, Indiana for an inaugural lifting event benefitting the Make-A-Wish Foundation called "WishLift". It was there I met Scott Nelson and Harry "Hank" Johnson Jr., along with 8 other 2000 Finishers (it was November, so we didn't know we were going to place in the Top 2000 at the time, but I see it as no coincidence). It was these events - of interacting with people who had such giving spirits and truly cared to make a difference - that I began a process of removing my cynicism and doubt and believing in something more than just calories and food in/out but rather focused on the burning desire, the passion, the believe, and the faith.

And it was when I stopped tripping over my own ego and my own self-limiting notions, when I took that blind leap of faith and decided, I am no longer going to let life choose how I live, I am going to create my vision of who I WANT to be, and hold that vision in my mind, and become that vision - THAT is when I had the great breakthroughs.

And it works like that every time. I have plenty of periods where I lose focus, I'm not as intent with my vision or consistent with my action, and I slip in various ways. But each time, I might have a few "false starts" on the road back to where I want to get, yet I always know the time when I am going to truly succeed because it is an inner, deep, heartfelt DECISION. When I commit to a choice and leave myself open to doubts, I fail every time. When I push forward and don't give myself the option of failure, I succeed. It's so much in the mind!

Jeremy

Bump this is important, if anyone has missed what Jeremy has written.

Ugh - this is a hard one to address. Very complicated - which is, in fact, why I am writing an entire book about it. I think the best way to "capture" what happened is through the series of interviews that happened right after my two most significant breakthroughs ...

Here is one:

http://www.bodychangers.com/jeremy_inter.shtml

And here is the other:

http://www.bodychangers.com/jeremy2_inter.shtml

Basically, the pursuit of fitness did help me gain my self-esteem and confidence. But not how people would expect. I was frustrated and hitting a brick wall. My greatest lesson learned was that for things to change, *I* had to change. So the pursuit of fitness forced me to look inward, and it was this inventory I took of myself and my actions that led to me slowly changing as a person. So it was the journey itself that created the inner reflection, and this process allowed me to evolve as a person while simultaneously empowering me to transform my physique. That is why I am calling the book "Become the Journey" because the phrase that became my mantra was "It's the journey, not the destination." Meaning - where I had failed in the past, it was operating from a "must get to x then all bets are off" whereas the new mentality was, "this is my new way of living." I literally began to embrace "doing the right thing" and understanding that a change in scale weight or body fat might come as a consequence of that, but the ultimate reward was my health and the better person I was becoming, rather than any movement on the scale.

I stopped looking at bads as "which food is bad" but rather, "how will this food help me?" which does change the way you might approach nutrition, etc. In my life, I learned how selfish I was and really took Bill Phillips advice to heart - that we should live by giving. This inspired me so much that I later flew across the country to Evansville, Indiana for an inaugural lifting event benefitting the Make-A-Wish Foundation called "WishLift". It was there I met Scott Nelson and Harry "Hank" Johnson Jr., along with 8 other 2000 Finishers (it was November, so we didn't know we were going to place in the Top 2000 at the time, but I see it as no coincidence). It was these events - of interacting with people who had such giving spirits and truly cared to make a difference - that I began a process of removing my cynicism and doubt and believing in something more than just calories and food in/out but rather focused on the burning desire, the passion, the believe, and the faith.

And it was when I stopped tripping over my own ego and my own self-limiting notions, when I took that blind leap of faith and decided, I am no longer going to let life choose how I live, I am going to create my vision of who I WANT to be, and hold that vision in my mind, and become that vision - THAT is when I had the great breakthroughs.

And it works like that every time. I have plenty of periods where I lose focus, I'm not as intent with my vision or consistent with my action, and I slip in various ways. But each time, I might have a few "false starts" on the road back to where I want to get, yet I always know the time when I am going to truly succeed because it is an inner, deep, heartfelt DECISION. When I commit to a choice and leave myself open to doubts, I fail every time. When I push forward and don't give myself the option of failure, I succeed. It's so much in the mind!

Jeremy

I am looking forward to the release of your book.

. Now it takes a month's work just to move the belt one notch, if even that.

But look on the bright side....with every month that goes by, it makes it that much more unlikely that you'll ever put your progress at risk.

That's what keeps me moving forward. :tucool: