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howtoloose

January 27th, 2008, 08:03 PM

George

January 27th, 2008, 08:22 PM

Hi, howtoloose, welcome to JSF. :)
I understand your problem with there being a whole lot of information out there. It can get really confusing and I hesitate to make you read even more but I suggest you read the stickies at the top of this forum. Specifically Gravityhomer's guide to fatloss (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=19229). It might help to explain a few of your concerns.
What kind of exerecise do you guys recomend .

Weight training with emphasis on the following lifts: squat, deadlift, row, benchpress, overhead pressing and pull-ups/chin-ups.

As for the diet: It's hard to get an idea of just how much you're eating because your descriptions are pretty vague. However, some general recommendations would be to increase healthy fat intake (almonds, olive oil, natural peanut butter, fax seed, fish oil, etc.) and get rid of the powerbars. Also, you're not eating any vegetables. Eat them.

guava

January 27th, 2008, 08:24 PM

sevenatenine

January 28th, 2008, 06:29 AM

No one has EVER followed a perfect plan, it just doesn't exist. The trick, is to find something that works, and stick with it. Consistency is EVERYTHING! Many people have had many good results following very different plans, the thing everyone who has achieved their goals has in common, is that whatever plan they used, whether it was perfect or not, they where consistent with it!

Now get out there, do something, do anything, whatever you do, just stick with it!

January 28th, 2008, 07:29 AM

You definitely came to the right place imo, read every sticky, it has all you need to know.

I found that I had to get everything else in my life in order first. Then, you have to really want to change and make your health a priority. I've gone down 4 notches on my belt, put on muscle and still lost 10+ lbs. in 3 weeks. It feels so damn good.

It helps having people with similar goals big time. My g/f is on the same routine I am and we have a bet with 2 partners involving weight targets and BFat % (Costing $$$) ending April.

Buy a decent bench/weights and addons, I found one for $120. Stick it where you spend the most time.

Print or save pictures of people's bodies you want to emulate. It really does help.

Signup with fitday.com and track your nutrition, it's so simple it hurts.

Lift weights and put on muscle! Burning calories while resting and looking great, what a bargain. Start slow but get heavy with the weights and low reps, lots of people like to use Max-OT as a guide. Like suggested GravityHomer's weight loss guide is a must read sticky in this forum, read it and read it again.

Ez

odin1642

January 28th, 2008, 09:02 AM

Hi Guys

I am 6' 1 265 lbs age 37 . Trying to loose weight now for about 10 years . every jan i think i am going to eat good exercise , join gym
but after two or three months i just end up frusterated and heavier than before , In the last 10 years i have gained almost 40 lbs .

My main problem is that i read too much and their is so much information out there that your head will start spinning.So most of the time i will just change my program and then just quit .

But anyway again this year i am doing it again , This is what i plan to do . Please feel free to give your input .

Monday - Saturday

7:30 AM eat whole wheat cereal , with 2% milk and fruit
7:50 AM walk on treadmill @ 4MPH for 30 min
8:30 AM 20 Push ups
9:30 AM Breakfast 3 egg whites 2 wheat toast and 1 protein shake

1:00 PM Snack 1 lowfat yougart and apple
2:30 PM Lunch grilled chicken Sandwich with Wheat bread
4:45 PM Sanck 1 Powerbar
6:30 PM 1 16OZ Protein shake
6:45 PM to 8:30 PM Workout in Gym

10:00 PM I glass of 2% Milk

In addition to that i will drink about 6-8 glasses of water thruout the day .

I am keeping sunday as off day

So far this year i have followed this plan . and have lost about 5lbs ,
But i am still very soft and would like to firm up .

What kind of exerecise do you guys recomend .

Firstly, stop doing so much reading and research, there is no perfect exercise plan out there.

Secondly, yes there is a mass of information out there, information which is often contradictory, however it's time to put a plan into action and stick with the plan.

Re your diet, it's not the best, probably not enough protein in there and there's no post workout nutrition. You should be getting protein with every meal, and I also see no vegetables or healthy fats in there - add in plenty of green veg and healthy fats with 3-4 of the meals.

I would also drop the 20 push ups as these could negatively impact on your weights workout later in the day.

Re gym workouts, I hour 45 mins 6 days a week probably too much, I think 3 x 45 mins to 60 mins a week would be better,

There is so much information out there simply because there are umpteen different ways to skin a cat when it comes to body composition improvements. Here's a copy and paste of a post I did for a girl who was seeking to lose weight - you could try this although you may wish to perhaps not eat at maintenance calories but maybe 2-500 calories beneath that to accelerate weight loss as you presumably have a lot to lose.

Also cardio exercise- you might want to ease yourself in gently to this via walking or treadmill walking as you're doing just now - it may be difficult to do running exercises at first for you due to lack of fitness and high bodyweight. For the same reason you really ideally should get a medical before starting any vigorous exercise programme.

This is just an example of a programme you could do, you can obviously come up with your own programme but it really is time for positive action, and to stop agonising and obsessing over what is the best programme for you. Here's the paste, this programme was for a gilr but would suit a beginner of either sex who's seeking to lose fat :-

As you're female and only 19 and I presume looking to be toned, I don't think what you're trying to achieve is going to be all that complicated. I'm assuming you're not looking for big muscles.

Firstly eat clean - avoid all candy/sweets, cake, biscuits, ice cream, white bread, white pasta, white rice, pizza, burgers, fried food, all fast food in general - curries, chinese, McDonalds, KFC, whatever.

Minimise booze intake as much as you can.

Also minimise even wholewheat/wholemeal bread and pasta - oats and brown rice are a better source for carbs. Generally try and avoid sandwiches whilst cutting.

Try and drink at 3 litres of water a day or so to raise metabolism.

Eat green vegetables 3-4 times a day - broccoli, cabbage, leeks etc - this will ease digestion and help metabolism.

Take a tablespoon of flaxseed oil, olive oil or fish oil with three of your meals - these are healthy fats and although extra calories they will help you burn fat.

Make sure you eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. Firstly calculate your maintenance calories using this link http://www.fitsense.co.uk/fit_article.php?id=1.

Go with that amount of calories per day spaced over 6 meals eating healthy fats and green veg as mentioned above. You'll have to read food labels to work out the calories for each foodstuff.

Also you should be getting a fair amount of protein - one gramme per pound of bodyweight should suffice - have protein at every meal including breakfast - so for your size say 20-24 grammes of protein per meal - good sources are tuna (don't eat any more than 2 cans a week though due to mercury poison problems with tuna), tinned ocean salmon (the farmed salmon is apparently full of toxins so avoid), lean beef/steak, chicken breast, turkey breast. You could also take 20-25 grammes of protein powder once a day - don't take protein powder as a meal substitute any more than twice a day.

Immediately after a weights workout you should have 20-25 grammes of protein powder combined with say 250 -300 ml of fruit juice - this is important to aid your body to recover from the weights workout.

Exercise - well if you want toned, even as a female, you should lift weights 3 times a week - you really need to get a trainer at the gym - presumably there's a gym at college - to show you how to lift weights safely and to give you a programme, something like the following should be fine for you but make sure you get a trainer to show you how to lift weights safely, preferably have someone else train with you at all times for safety reasons or at least be sure there's some trainers or other gym members in close proximity in case you get in trouble while lifting a weight, albeit with light weights this shouldn't be much of an issue :-

Monday, Wednesday and Friday :-

2 sets of squats - 10 reps
2 sets of lunges - 10 reps
2 sets of dumbell bench press - 10 reps
2 sets of lat pull down - 10 reps
3 sets of Swiss ball crunches - 10 reps
2 sets of seated rows - 10 reps
2 sets of seated or standing shoulder press - 10 reps
2 sets of dumbell curls - seated or standing 10 reps
2 sets of tricep pushdowns - 10 reps

You'd have to start off with very light weights and get a trainer to show you the exercises and how to lift the weights safely. The trainer could also give you a programme, the above is a mere indication of a programme you could maybe do. The advantage of doing weights is it will raise your metabolism a lot and burn fat. Don't worry about getting big muscles, this won't happen, especially if lifting only light weights - it will just get you toned but just make sure to get guidance from a trainer at the gym.

CARDIO - I'd say do as much of this as you like. If you play sports this is a great way to do cardio and get trim - as you're at college presumably something is available like basketball, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, squash, cycling or whatever. Alternatively you can do stationary stuff at the gym like treadmills, eliptical machines, exercise bikes but this is comparatively dull and tedious - listening to good bassy tunes on an IPOD or whatever can get you going though and relieve the boredom.

Try and do cardio at least 3 times a week for 30-60 minutes at a time, but more is better - say 5 or 6 times a week and the more often you do it, the quicker you will burn fat.

I would say avoid all shortcuts in my opinion like fat burners and stimulants - these can have bad side effects for a start and they're not worth the risk in my opinion. Rather just eat very clean, minimise booze, lift some weights at the gym and do your cardio and at your age your body will improve rapidly. Be as dedicated as you can be and at your age be you'll be in shape in no time.

Oh yeah it's also important that you make sure you have no medical conditions like a heart condition, anaemia, low or high blood pressure or whatever before you start a programme of rigorous exercise - you should really get a medical before starting any exercise programme - as you're at college presumably there's a doctor or whatever on site who could do this.

And also re diet be sure you have no food allergies like nut allergies or other medical conditions that could restrict the sort of foods you can eat - diabetes or whatever before you start a new diet Also you should have a doctor or medical expert look over your diet ideally before you start it.

As I say, it's easy - lift some weights at the gym, do cardio and eat clean and healthy - it's the dedication/discipline that's the hard part. Make sure you get some guidance from a trainer at the gym though, you can't just rely on posts you get from an internet forum.

DON'T go on a crash diet, this won't work, eat your maintenance level calories and burn off the fat through weights and cardio.

Good luck with whatever diet and exercise programme you go with:tu:

telmar

February 3rd, 2008, 05:41 PM

Here's another suggestion - given that you've been trying at this for so long unsuccessfully...

If/when you get to the point where you give up on this plan, don't give up entirely. Instead, make a minor but permanent change to your ordinary diet.

that is -

don't eat fried foods - fries, chips, chicken, whatever
don't eat cheese, oil, and mayo as condiments
don't eat pizza
don't drink things with calories in them
(all these "don't eats" can have occasional exceptions, but it's often better to treat them as the rule)
seafood > chicken > red meat
eat more veggies
don't keep unhealthy food around the house
substitute off all the unhealthy sides/toppings that come with the meals you get in restaurants
find tons of healthier things that you prefer over the unhealthier things above
start becoming really aware of the calorie content of the foods you eat
become aware of how many calories you really take in vs. the amount of calories burnt off by exercise
don't eat less than you want to, just eat healthier

you might be shocked at what you can accomplish just in this way, slowly but steadily (even *gasp* without exercise). myself - i got to the point where i vastly preferred the healthier diet to what i was eating before and lost a ton of weight that way - and have no reason to even think of going back. i'm not sure you can say the same for the regimen in your post (it sounds totally unappetizing/devoid of flavor :)), which is why i suspect you're quitting. Once you're successful with this you'll start feeling like you can accomplish more and more and may go again for a tougher regimen. For me it's all about the differences between what people ate 40 years ago vs. what they eat today (soda, fries, chips, burgers, and unhealthy sit-down restaurant food were all consumed a lot less then, therefore people weighed a lot less then even though they weren't on "diets".) Finally, not to knock exercise, but I would guess that a bad diet is probably the reason you're at 265 lb. That treadmill walk, while it might be good for your heart, is probably burning no more calories than a single cookie.

anyway, no offense to people who follow tough regimens, I'm sure they can be more effective if followed consistently. I just think that if you're consistently unsuccessful at following a plan that for you requires an abnormal and unsustainable amount of determination (you said it right in your post), why not construct an intelligent one that doesn't?

guava

February 3rd, 2008, 08:40 PM

make a minor but permanent change to your ordinary diet.that is -

don't eat fried foods - fries, chips, chicken, whatever
don't eat cheese, oil, and mayo as condiments
don't drink things with calories in them
find tons of healthier things that you prefer over the unhealthier things above
start becoming really aware of the calorie content of the foods you eat
don't eat less than you want to, just eat healthier

you might be shocked at what you can accomplish just in this way, slowly but steadily (even *gasp* without exercise).

Once you're successful with this you'll start feeling like you can accomplish more and more and may go again for a tougher regimen.

That's a really good plan, and, in fact, what I attribute my success to as well. I didn't do anything special to get from 155 pounds to 130 pounds except for those few minor changes you mentioned. For the last ten pounds, (when I was no longer overweight, just plain flabby) it was a lot trickier, but, generally, for a person to get out of the overweight range, it doesn't require counting calories or anything very complicated. I've seen so many people here, armed with their new meal plans, saying that they couldn't possibly eat more than 2000 calories of clean foods; they were just too full!

telmar

February 4th, 2008, 01:40 PM

guava pared it down to its essence. the key is it really doesn't take much and if you think it through you don't have to "sacrifice" at all - if you really know what you're doing you can create your own guidelines around the foods you like. I remember going to Vegas, totally pigging out on buffets and other meals (while still basically following my guidelines), and STILL losing weight - I no longer felt like I even had to try.

What's frustrating for me is now that I've done it, I really want to show people how ridiculously easy it is (if I had known it myself I would have done it years ago). Like my father, who's overweight/obese, has tried to lose it, and is getting to an age where it's a serious health concern. But I think either they a) don't believe me, b) feel like they need to have a diet plan that achieves perfection so they never start, or c) have too aggressive expectations for how much weight they will lose at the start.

After they start their aggressive diet and exercise programs they *always* quit due to lack of motivation, stressful situations, extreme desire to eat other foods, etc. I've got a good friend from my college days who is up near the OP's weight and has lost a large amount of weight and gained it back. Unfortunately, right now he's starting an all-soup diet. I don't understand why people don't just try changing their everyday habits, rather than creating some ridiculous artificial regimen they can't possibly sustain.

two books that I thought were helpful:

- Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss. A little hokey but sound philosophy and very interesting. Shows you in pictures how for a given # of calories you would actually often strongly prefer to eat something healthy over something unhealthy.

- Eat This Not That. Much more practical and less extreme than the Dr. Shapiro one - but not as clear either.

guava you said the last 10 lb was more difficult - what did you wind up doing for those?

guava

February 4th, 2008, 09:05 PM

- Eat This Not That. Much more practical and less extreme than the Dr. Shapiro one - but not as clear either.

guava you said the last 10 lb was more difficult - what did you wind up doing for those?
Is "Eat This Not That" like the fast food comparisons they put in Men's Health? Those are kind of neat.

I liked the Looneyspoons cookbook because it has humorous sidebars about cooking tips, portion sizes, and health facts. It tells you how many baked potatoes you could have instead of a movie theatre popcorn, or how many strawberries you could eat instead of a chocolate cake, and stuff like that.

What does 200 calories look like (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm)?

The last ten pounds? It wasn't difficult. It just happened to take a long time. Instead of the typical "pound a week" I settled for whatver happened. Took me about 5 months to lose 10 pounds, which was a nice, comfortable speed for me, and I've been pretty close to maintaining it for about 3 1/2 years now. Mainly I did it by building a diet loosely based on the Superfoods Diet (http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90444). Rather than the typical path of having several foods off limits, I had several foods that were essential. It sounds kind of backwards, but I allowed myself any treat I wanted, as long as I first ate broccoli, spinach, oranges, berries, tofu or beans, chicken breast, yogurt, pumpkin, and a few other things. It worked because once I forced myself to eat all those healthy foods (that are very nutrient dense and calorie sparse) I had no room left in my stomach for junk food.

telmar

February 5th, 2008, 11:42 PM

Is "Eat This Not That" like the fast food comparisons they put in Men's Health? Those are kind of neat.

I guess so (I don't read Men's Health but I think they're the ones that publish it). I like those visual calorie comparison books - easy to remember.

so you're saying you allowed yourself anything you wanted as long as you first ate one of those things, or all of those things? :)

anyway, I'll check out the stuff you recommend. I'm already losing weight a lot slower than a pound a week but easily maintaining the rate... I'm probably at the point you were when you said you had another 10 lb to go - except I'd probably not prefer to lose 10 lb since I'm below 160 as it is and I'm a guy - think maybe now it's time I started exercising more.