Hi there, I registered on here a while back, but this is actually my first post. I've read a lot of these "give me advice" threads, but everyone wants something different and everyone's body type is different and so since what works for one person may not work for another, I want to ask you all what I can do to achieve my goals.

First, perhaps some life history. You can skip all this if you'd like.

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Throughout my entire undergraduate, I drank and partied pretty much every weekend. It's probably around this time that I started developing a beer gut of sorts. The excessive drinking and complete lack of exercise (except for bicycling to, from and between classes) and my love for Chinese, Thai and Indian cuisine meant that I was also consuming a crap ton of white rice at all times of the day.

Fast forward to January 2007. I graduated, got a job, moved, and made a resolution to not become a statistic; one of the overwhelming majority of obese and overweight Americans today. So I got a gym membership. However, 2007 was the first year on my very first job so I put in a crap ton of hours and was pretty much all the time. I went to the gym every now and then, and I guess it kinda helped, because I've packed on a lot of visible muscle. I used to be a scrawny computer nerd. Now I'm a strong somewhat muscular computer nerd.

Here we are at 2008 however, a year since I got my gym membership, and I still have my beer gut. I've changed a lot of my habits. I choose to be DD 95% of the time we go out. When I do drink, I drink in moderation and wine over beer most of the time now. I don't drink soda at all. I drink water all day. I try to eat as much protein as I can. But I can't tell if it's working, and I need to fix it, and I need your help. Sorry about the super-long read, by the way.

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Cliff's notes: 24/m/overweight with beer gut, needs help.

Goal: to lose stomach fat, some visible muscle wouldn't be too bad either.

Here are my stats:
Height: 5'11
Weight: 180lbs (has been constant since mid 2007-- in fact I was 165 at the beginning of 2007, making me wonder if this weight gain is muscle?)

I started keeping a notebook starting this year and I track how much I lift at the gym every time I go. I try to increase the weight by 5% week after week. I lift 3 times a week, usually in the evening preceded by 20 minutes of cardio work {treadmill, elliptical or bike}. The other 2-3 times, I go in and do only cardio-- treadmill or elliptical or bike for 20 minutes straight.

Is there anything else you'd need from me to be able to help me? Thanks in advance!

At 5'11", 180, you aren't too overweight. Depending on how much muscle you carry, you might not have that far to go. You may not need to drop more than 10-15 lbs to start.

You might be a good candidate for a short cut then holding at maintenance for awhile to do a body recomposition as you add strength and muscle.

But that's up to you to decide. It might help people point you in the right direction if you posted a sample diet and what your specific workout looks like.

It might help people point you in the right direction if you posted a sample diet and what your specific workout looks like.
thanks for the reply, and sorry it took me so long to respond. i don't know how much muscle i carry. i guess i can see some if i flex. the bathroom scale reported this morning that i weigh 179.6lbs and have 19.9% body fat.

My sample diet: I generally start the morning by drinking a whole glass of water and taking a multivitamin, followed by a bowl of oatmeal with some frozen raspberries in milk. This is usually ~8am.
<water>
Then at 10, I eat some carrots and peanut butter or something like that. Maybe some fat free yogurt. I like the taste of unflavored.
<water>
Then at 12, it's lunch. Lately, I've been trying to cook a chicken breast in some olive oil and top it off with salsa or whatever.
<water>
At 2pm, I eat something else small. Like cottage cheese with the aforementioned frozen raspberries.
<water>
<maybe a glass of skim milk>
4pm. some baby carrots or a grapefruit or whatever.
<water>
530pm.
handful of peanuts or walnuts or cashews or almonds and head out to the gym with my girlfriend who is back from school at this point.

i start off with some 10 minutes or so of cardio, then i just pick random machines to throw off my body ranging from chess presses, incline presses, bicep pulldowns, tricep dip machines, rotary torso, squats, etc. I see if I did a particular thing the week before and if yes, I add 5% to the weight I did last and I do 10 reps. Then I reduce the weight by 5-10lbs and do 10 more within 30 seconds of the first. Then I move to a different machine. I try to stay in the gym for a little under an hour, drinking around two bottles of water while I'm there.

When I get back home, I try and eat something protein rich. Like a glass of water with whey, or a protein shake. Shortly thereafter, we have dinner. Lately (two or so weeks), we've been trying to not each any rice or pasta and stick to fish and lots of starchy vegetables.

10pm. Glass of water and some cottage cheese.
12am. Bedtime.

This is not very strict of course. Last night, we ended up going out for Mexican food and I got a beef burrito with rancho beans and rice, which I'm eating for lunch today. Gah.

I'd appreciate any help I can get. :(

Here are some pictures I've taken to kinda illustrate my problems, with the point of the flexing one being for you to see how much muscle I have in my arms. Also, looks like the thanksgiving - new years slacking off ended up with me actually gaining more stomach fat.
http://picdump.bluethings.net/for_jsf/2-1-2008/side.jpghttp://picdump.bluethings.net/for_jsf/2-1-2008/back.jpghttp://picdump.bluethings.net/for_jsf/2-1-2008/back_flexed.jpghttp://picdump.bluethings.net/for_jsf/2-1-2008/front.jpg

In summary :-

Find out your maintenance calorie level according to how often you exercise and subtract say 500-700 cals from that as you look as though you have a fair bit of fat to lose - then fix a diet in accordance with below that fits that calorie level. Use this site to find your maintenance calorie level :

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

30-40 grammes of protein every meal, including breakfast, no more than two of these meals should be protein shakes/bars, the rest should be whole food.

Immediate post weights workout have 30-40 grammes protein powder with 400 ml of raspberry fruit smoothie - this is quite a high calorie combo but is needed immediate post workout.

Eat green veggies 3 or 4 times a day

Eat a tablespoon of flaxseed oil/natural peanut butter/olive oil with 2-3 of the meals.

Drink about 4 litres of water a day

No cappucinos and high fat coffees/teas, stick to black or skimmed milk etc.

Avoid all bread and pasta, french fries/chips, try and stick to oats or brown rice for carbs.

No sweets/candy, cakes, biscuits, potato chips/crisps, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, white bread, white pasta.

Minimise or abstain booze - restrict to a few once a week at most, if drink beer buy low carb, not regular, a good one like Michelob Ultra can be a real belly saver but no alchohol at all is best (if you can manage it! Personally I still have quite a few beers on a Saturday night but stick to low carb if possible, if the bars and clubs sell it that is, the beer I drink pre/post pub/ club from my fridge is all low carb though. Tonic water or water are low calorie mixers for spirits)

Workout with weights 3-4 times a week, either 3 x full body or 4 x upper/lower body split, each workout done twice per week. See recent posts of mine in which I posted up 2 samples of a 3 x full body plan. Sounds like your workouts are far from ideal at moment and you're doing too much machines - use the free weights and get all the big compounds in to raise metabolism and build muscle/burn fat - Squat, deadlift, chinups/pullups/lat pulldown, seated cable row/dumbell row/bent rows/t-bar rows, bench press, shoulder press.

The posts I was talking about :-

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?p=570893#post570893

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?p=565656#post565656


Do as much cardio as you can fit in.


I'd suggest you workout a new diet plan and new weights and cardio routine and post it up for folk to make comments.

Read the stickies in the beginner's section, especially the ones about fat loss.

The calorie calculator tells me that my maintenance value is 2517 Calories/Day and for fat loss, I need to eat 2013 Calories/Day. The thing is...I don't think I even eat that much.

Let's count what I've done so far today:
- Woke up
- drank a glass of water along with a Flax Oil pill and a multivitamin: 20 cals
- drove to the gym and biked for 34 minutes, 6 miles, 254 cals
- drank a bottle of water mixed with a scoop of whey while I biked: 120 cals
- drove home
- had a bowl of 1 cup frosted shredded wheaties with 1 cup skim milk, and cooked 1 whole egg and 1 egg white only in 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil: 508 cals
- lots more water
- for lunch, i ate some leftover teriyaki chicken with a crap ton of green veggies and a half cup of spanish rice. this could have been a lot healthier, i know, but my damn bean soup wasn't ready to eat. fitday says a 10oz meal of this kind is: 366 cals.
- more water, 1 fat free banana cream pie yogurt cup: 90 cals
- pre-workout snack: 2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter + 12 or so baby carrots: 236 cals

and here's where i stand. with a total so far today of ~1200 calories with dinner (7-bean soup and salad), post-dinner cottage cheese or plain yogurt, pre-workout snack and post-workout shake yet to go. While not every day is like this, most of them are.

I don't drink coffee. I don't eat french fries or chips. I work from home, so I avoid the temptation of eating from the cafeteria. I booze maaaaybe once a week. However, when I drank last weekend, I had 6 or 7 beers. I don't eat candy, or cakes or biscuits or cookies or ice cream.

I'm going to the gym again in an hour or so to lift weights. I'll try and make it a very intense session, and come back and post what I did. Then maybe you will be able to help me more.

Thanks a bunch.

I can make the following "safe" suggestions to your diet:

Get rid of the frosted shredded wheat

Add some form of lean protein to every meal

When increasing calories, start with breakfast

Cut down on the alcohol. I find it's really not that hard not to drink, and I'm in University and attend keggers and such pretty often - but if you absolutely must drink, stick to the lower calorie stuff.


I realize that completely overhauling your diet is tough and is totally outside the comfort zone. But, if you want to make changes, you're going to have to go a bit outside the comfort zone, even if it's only a little bit at a time. Consistency is what matters, not doing an overhaul for a week and then giving up.

Good luck :D

Okay so while I was at the gym yesterday:
- chess press: 120 x 10, 100 x 10. 120 was the absolute most i could have pushed up. it hurt like hell.
- bicep pull down: 120 x 10, 105 x 10

then i did a whole bunch with dumbbells replicating actions that some of the machines in the gym would have me do that still has me sore when i extend my arms today.

Today was cardio day so I went and sat on a bike pre-breakfast, set it to a high resistance and biked for 34 minutes while reading a book.
I can make the following "safe" suggestions to your diet:

Get rid of the frosted shredded wheat

Add some form of lean protein to every meal

When increasing calories, start with breakfast

Cut down on the alcohol. I find it's really not that hard not to drink, and I'm in University and attend keggers and such pretty often - but if you absolutely must drink, stick to the lower calorie stuff.


I realize that completely overhauling your diet is tough and is totally outside the comfort zone. But, if you want to make changes, you're going to have to go a bit outside the comfort zone, even if it's only a little bit at a time. Consistency is what matters, not doing an overhaul for a week and then giving up.

Good luck :D
dammit dude, i just started on the frosted shredded wheat. they're good! okay, i swapped them for toasted wheat with cream cheese this morning. and i'll eat my oatmeal tomorrow on. i ate a 700 calorie breakfast this morning and have continued to eat healthy since the rest of the day today i think. so far so good.

can i substitute whey protein in water for the form of lean protein alongside every meal? sometimes, i might just not have deli turkey sitting around in my fridge.

i'm going to make sure i don't drink more than 2 beers this whole week. and i don't do it because i need to get drunk or anything; my friend just brewed a batch and he always asks for my opinion. unfortunately, i doubt it's anything light, which is why i will keep this to a min.

Okay, I'm looking at everything I've eating so far today on FitDay. GAH!

Fat: 28%
Carbs: 44%
Protein: 28%

That is for a total of 1763 calories. Fitday didn't really have my homemade 7-bean soup on there, so I used a 14-bean soup food calorie count instead. Even still, that chart above is probably a very bad ratio isn't it? What does this ratio need to be? I'm going to be eating steamed veggies and tilapia for dinner. That should help.