I sat down with a recruiter and I have to be between 192-195 to ship out for basic. He said I could also get by with 200 even if Im in solid shape at that time.
Im 5'11" and 240 pounds. I dont know what my bodyfat is but I would think 20% - 25% or so.
I have not trained regularly in almost 2 years. My mother was very ill and I took care of her with other family for that time. She has passed on and Im trying to get my life back in order. Sitting in a hospital day and night etc. really ruins your fitness levels and your diet.

What the way to lose bodyfat the fastest. I have never been big on cardio but in the Marines you run till your going to die. Then you run some more. LOL! I have begun getting up and running in the mornings. I have a gym membership and lift hard 3 times a week.

My current split looks like this.

Mon- Chest, Tri's- Ab's
Tue- 45 minutes cardio
Wed- Legs
Thur- 45 minutes cardio
Fri- Back, Biceps
Sat-Cardio
Sun- Rest Day

If there is a better way please tell me. Thanks for any help in advance.

J.

I sat down with a recruiter and I have to be between 192-195 to ship out for basic. He said I could also get by with 200 even if Im in solid shape at that time.
Im 5'11" and 240 pounds. I dont know what my bodyfat is but I would think 20% - 25% or so.
I have not trained regularly in almost 2 years. My mother was very ill and I took care of her with other family for that time. She has passed on and Im trying to get my life back in order. Sitting in a hospital day and night etc. really ruins your fitness levels and your diet.

What the way to lose bodyfat the fastest. I have never been big on cardio but in the Marines you run till your going to die. Then you run some more. LOL! I have begun getting up and running in the mornings. I have a gym membership and lift hard 3 times a week.

My current split looks like this.

Mon- Chest, Tri's- Ab's
Tue- 45 minutes cardio
Wed- Legs
Thur- 45 minutes cardio
Fri- Back, Biceps
Sat-Cardio
Sun- Rest Day

If there is a better way please tell me. Thanks for any help in advance.

J.

i believe fat loss is all about diet. you need to figure out your daily caloric intake and then adjust that so you get about 40% protein, 40% carb, 20% fat. you can play with the numbers but thats generally a healthy diet.

the second most important thing for fat loss is cardio. i see you are doing 45 minutes, thats good. anything less than 30 minutes wouldnt be very beneficial for your goal. you should use one of the freely available tools online to figure out a target heart range somewhere around 80% max heart rate.

in your weight training, focus on big compound movements; deadlift, squat, bench, clean & press. these exercises utilize so many muscles and help burn fat more efficiently. limit your rest time between sets to no more 90 seconds.

good luck in the marines.

If you really want to join the marines you need endurance. I dont think 3 days of lifting and 2 day of cardio will cut it. Try 5 days of lifting, 5 days of cardio. AM carido, PM lifting.

Read marcus' sticky at the top as it has loads if information. Count calories and follow macros. I would say run every morning fasted and workout 4-5 times a week in the evenings. Diet is 70% of weight loss in my opinion, so start eating healthy.

If you really want to join the marines you need endurance. I dont think 3 days of lifting and 2 day of cardio will cut it. Try 5 days of lifting, 5 days of cardio. AM carido, PM lifting.

Needing to end up in shape doesn't mean he should kill himself off this week trying to get from zero to stud.

I love fullbody and circuits for cutting.

Here's one

Squats: 3x8-12
Incline DB Press: 3x8-12
BB Rows: 2x8-12 (switch grips every week)
Chinups: 2xmax reps (once you get 12 reps on both sets, add weight)
Military Press: 3x8-12
Dips: 3x8-12 (once you get 12 reps on all sets, add weight)
BB Curls: 2x8-12
Calf Raise: 3x8-12
Deadlifts: 2x8-12

You can do this 3-4x/wk. Don't go to failure...

I suppose the Navy Seals peparation workout could help.

http://seals.longboys.net/warning_order.htm

http://seals.longboys.net/pt2.htm

Hey bro, I do exercise with the marines and I can tell you this run run run run run. I cant stress that enough you think you run at homr wait till your a marine. Other than that plan a good diet and a good exercise routine, how much time before you wish to leave to boot camp?

I been known to use some unorthodox method when it comes to shedding fat...So if I were you, I'd go on an "atkins diet with a zeng" mode....I'd limit my carbs to no more than 80 grams for every 3 days...On the fourth day, I'd bump it up to 120-150 grams and then repeat....I'd do cardio 5 days a week...3 days where i'd do 30-40 minute empty stomach in the morning, and 20-30 minutes after weight training...And as for the meals, I'd spread them out evenly between 4-5 meals..My food range will only be: Potatoes, Oats, Brown Rice, Chicken Breast, Mixed Greens, Tuna, Lean Cut beef and a very good Post workout meal...I followed this method 6 days a week and went from a 52 inch waist to 38 in 3 months

Nobody in the marines is going to care if you look great but your endurance and conditioning suck. Even if you make weight, if you can't perform, you're out. I wouldn't train with physique benchmarks being my primary concern. Train from an increased performance mindset for both strength, and especially conditioning (can't be emphasized enough). The physique changes you need will come along for the ride.

Do the same with your diet -- eat so you can perform at your best. Yes, you're going to need a calorie deficit to lose weight, but you'd have to about sabotage things to not end up in this state with the level of activity you should be trying to build up to.

Thanks for all the advice so far. I have at least 3 months before I can ship and maybe longer, since I need a waiver or two. But 3 months is what it looks like right now.

I will try to do a cardio mix, with weights as suggested. Diet is all important it seems. I will get that in check and go from there. Sometimes it seems like you never get where your going.

Thanks again!

Hey PumpingIron. Funny that I joined this site today because I happen to be in a similar situation. I'm taking the physical exam for the New York State Police in January and I need to get my weight down from 200 to below 180 to qualify. We should keep in touch and share tips since we are both in similar predicaments.

You're not doing enough cardio. I know a lot of people will disagree w/ me, but it's not like you're bodybuilding here. You're going to be running nearly everyday as a Marine, so you might as well go ahead and start getting yourself used to it.

Find out what kind of strength parameters you need for being a Marine (pushups, pullups, etc) and use your training to increase your numbers and endurance.

Also, kudos on looking into going into the service. Talk to some current/former marines and have them give you input onto what's REALLY going to be expected out of you and not what the recruiter is telling you ;)

Former Marine chiming in. Also- I will post my intro later on, but I just dumped about 40 lbs of fat in the last few months and agree with much of what has been said on this thread.

For specifics- I multiplied my starting body weight by 10, and that was the number of calories that I allowed myself per day. Of those- 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% healthy fats. I started reading the nutrition panels on anything I ate and made a speadsheet to track calories and macros. I eat a lot of tuna, bananas, roasted chicken and things like that. I studied the 'Gravityhomer's Fat Loss Guide' thread, and I read the beginner's section of the forums often. I work out every weekday MWF upper body, TTH lower body, including the abdomen. If I were back in my twenties and in your shoes, I'd be doing as much cardio as I could stand, on top of that.
I can't offer this as advice, but just mention it as my own personal metric: if I am just slightly hungry most of the time, I'm about where I want to be.

I find that I keep edging my calories down farther than I should- I catch myself and correct back up to near my proper consumption level. I've been doing this for a total of five months now, and I am close to 'ripped'.

As for MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) physical training- if you're training hard now, you'll be ahead of some of the people in your platoon. The runs start off easy, then get progressively harder. I think our first run was about a mile at a nice, easy jogging pace. When we were about to graduate, we were doing these monster 5 mile strength and endurance runs in the summer heat and only finding them somewhat annoying, instead of something to be dreaded.
The biggest physical exercise thing that you'll do in boot is 'bends and thrusts'. You will do many, many of them. They're known in the civilian world as 'burpees' or 'squat thrusts'. They are meted out as punishment for minor infractions- either real or imagined. You'll either go to the 'pit' (a dusty dirt lot outside of the squadbay) to do them- or you'll go to the Quarterdeck (also known as 'the classroom') to do them. When your name gets called (and repeated in full voice by the rest of your platoon) and you race up to the quarterdeck at top speed and report as ordered, and their is a four foot by one foot lake of sweat on the deck from the last guy that was there, then you're going to end up making your own lake. :-)

Things I wish I'd known before going:
Pace your training runs by the number of steps per complete breath cycle. Don't run faster than you can- I had problems with this- shoot for whatever pace it takes to complete the distance you're wanting to run. Having guts when your tired and hurting counts for more there than being a star athlete when you arrive.

Work on pull-ups and sit-ups. When I was in, maxing a first-class PFT was three mile run in 18 minutes, 20 pull ups and 80 sit ups in 2 minutes. That ought to be your goal. You can pass with less than that- but if you aim high, you won't be disappointed.

If they accept you to ship and you arrive a bit overweight, and if the weight is a serious problem with your physical performance, it is possible to get dropped from your platoon. It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen. If someone gets dropped, they go to PCP- Physical Conditioning Platoon until their physical condition catches up to where it should be. Then another platoon picks them up at the point they left off in the training cycle, and they continue on to graduation. A more likely thing to happen is to become a 'diet private', you get reduced rations at the chow hall and you may not have certain things to eat.
Anyway- sounds at this point like you're on track to not have to worry about it. You going to San Diego, or PI?

EDIT:
I'm also doing the 'five small meals a day' thing, rather than three bigger ones.

EDIT 2: More as it occurs to me. I'd get a copy of the Eleven General Orders from your recruiter, and start memorizing it now. You will have to know them, inside and out, and it's easier to memorize stuff like that when you're not tired and super-busy all of the time.

I sat down with a recruiter and I have to be between 192-195 to ship out for basic. He said I could also get by with 200 even if Im in solid shape at that time.
Im 5'11" and 240 pounds. I dont know what my bodyfat is but I would think 20% - 25% or so.
I have not trained regularly in almost 2 years. My mother was very ill and I took care of her with other family for that time. She has passed on and Im trying to get my life back in order. Sitting in a hospital day and night etc. really ruins your fitness levels and your diet.

What the way to lose bodyfat the fastest. I have never been big on cardio but in the Marines you run till your going to die. Then you run some more. LOL! I have begun getting up and running in the mornings. I have a gym membership and lift hard 3 times a week.

My current split looks like this.

Mon- Chest, Tri's- Ab's
Tue- 45 minutes cardio
Wed- Legs
Thur- 45 minutes cardio
Fri- Back, Biceps
Sat-Cardio
Sun- Rest Day

If there is a better way please tell me. Thanks for any help in advance.

J.

Never looked at the other suggestions but i would replace or include some giant sets on your cardio days.

eg.

Back squat
Cable or DB row
DB RDL
Pushup
Situp

Do all exercises back to back with challenging loads for 15-20 reps each. Work up to 3 giant sets.

These are BRUTAL and will get you in VERY good shape.