Hi everyone, I'm new here :tucool:

I am trying to tone up and shed a little fat.

I am 20, 5'11", about 155lbs and in reasonable shape. I have some muscle definition.. toned arms, slight chest definition and you can see the outline of my abs. I think my problem is that I have a layer of fat covering my abs, and my chest needs some work to look how I want it to.
I have been reading these past few weeks and I have come up with a plan. It's not perfect, it's not supposed to be. It's just my way of easing myself into what will become a proper routine. I have been following this for 2 days now.

Diet:
----

7am:
- Jordans country crisp cerial with a little semi-skimmed milk
- Banana

11am:
- One half tuna sandwich with wholemeal bread

12:30pm:
- Whole tuna sandwich
- Cerial bar

3pm:
- Low fat yoghurt

5:30/6pm:
------- Work Out ------ (see below for routine)
- 50g Whey Protein shake/powder with water straight after

7/7:30pm:
- Fresh vegetable & chicken stir-fry
- Yoghurt if I'm still hungry


I drink water all day, and it's important to note that I sit at a desk all day so my caloric expenditure is pretty low.


Workout Routine:
----------------

- Cardiovascular, cross-trainer for 30 minutes
- Free weights:
-- Bicep curls, 2x sets of 20 reps
-- Chest press, 2x sets of 20 reps
-- Chest fly, 2x sets of 20 reps
- Squats, as many possible in reps of 20
- Leg lifts as many as possible
- + slight variations of it all

These are all minimum values, I tweak them when I feel I have more energy or just want to push myself more.


What do you all think?

Hi everyone, I'm new here :tucool:

I am trying to tone up and shed a little fat.

I am 20, 5'11", about 155lbs and in reasonable shape. I have some muscle definition.. toned arms, slight chest definition and you can see the outline of my abs. I think my problem is that I have a layer of fat covering my abs, and my chest needs some work to look how I want it to.
I have been reading these past few weeks and I have come up with a plan. It's not perfect, it's not supposed to be. It's just my way of easing myself into what will become a proper routine. I have been following this for 2 days now.

Diet:
----

7am:
- Jordans country crisp cerial with a little semi-skimmed milk
- Banana

11am:
- One half tuna sandwich with wholemeal bread

12:30pm:
- Whole tuna sandwich
- Cerial bar

3pm:
- Low fat yoghurt

5:30/6pm:
------- Work Out ------ (see below for routine)
- 50g Whey Protein shake/powder with water straight after

7/7:30pm:
- Fresh vegetable & chicken stir-fry
- Yoghurt if I'm still hungry


I drink water all day, and it's important to note that I sit at a desk all day so my caloric expenditure is pretty low.


Workout Routine:
----------------

- Cardiovascular, cross-trainer for 30 minutes
- Free weights:
-- Bicep curls, 2x sets of 20 reps
-- Chest press, 2x sets of 20 reps
-- Chest fly, 2x sets of 20 reps
- Squats, as many possible in reps of 20
- Leg lifts as many as possible
- + slight variations of it all

These are all minimum values, I tweak them when I feel I have more energy or just want to push myself more.


What do you all think?



The workout is not the best - try and do a routine that involves going to gym 3-4 times a week and involves all the big compound lifts - Squats, deadlifts, bench presses, seated cable row/barbell bent over row/one armed dumbell row/t-bar rows (pick one), chinups/pullups/lat pulldown (again pick one), Seated barbell/seated dumbell/standing barbell shoulder presses (aka military presses). There are three basic types of workout routine for beginners - (1)Full body workouts x 3 per week (2) Four day upper body/lower body split - you workout upper body and lower body on separate days, working each twice per week (3) 3 day split working each bodypart just once per week - Eg. Monday - Back and biceps, Wednesday - Chest, shoulders and triceps, Friday - Legs and Abs. There are other variations of workout routine too but those are the three basic ones.

As a beginner I think either (1) or (2) would be better for you as the muscles are worked more frequently than (3). Do you have access to a gym or is it just home equipment you are using ?


I would stick with the cardio if you're seeking to lose fat at this stage.

Re diet, your diet is not the best, you should read the stickies in the beginners' section. As you're obviously not exactly fat, I think you'd maybe be best sticking with maintenance calories, maybe slightly more than maintenance calories, rather than go below maintenance calories (which you would do if you had a load of fat to lose, you don't seem to be in that position) and seek to burn the fat off through weights and cardio. You should have probably 30-40 g of protein each meal over 5-6 meals - aim for a gramme to a gramme and a half of protein per pound of bodyweight. Also get plenty of green veg in there.

I think it would help posters to assist you if you post up pictures of your current physique, then they could advise you better on body composition improvements.

Here's a link to two posts I did recently - there's advice on formats of full body workouts and diet in these posts. The first post was for a female seeking to lose fat but would apply to newbie males also. Either workout in the posts would work for a newbie, you could maybe start with the workout in the first one to ease yourself in for 2-3 months then move onto the one in the second post which is a bit more intense and then do this for 2-3 months - or of course come up with your own workout plan. Unfortunately it's important to get your diet and training regime as spot on as possible even very early on or your results may be minimal.


http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showpost.php?p=565656&postcount=10

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showpost.php?p=570893&postcount=10

What is your primary goal? Knowing that is important. It sounds like you want to add a bit of muscle but also want to cut fat?

I'd advise you not to focus on cutting fat at 5'11" 155. You are already pretty thin, and trying to get thinner will only leave you looking like you were just release from a concentration camp. Plus, you probably don't have a ton of muscle to show definition at that body weight anyway. Even keeping the same body fat you have now, if you add muscle you will look leaner.

I'd work toward trying to add some nice muscle. Luckily, at your age, that's very doable without having to pack on much fat at the same time.

First, you're going to have to eat more. And better.
Try to eat a significant amount of protein at each meal. Probably at least 25 g. More in a few meals.

Eat more green vegetables.

Add healthy fats to your diet in the form of nuts, natural nut butters (peanut, almond, etc), avocados, eggs, lean beef, olive oil (and other healthy oils), fish oil supplements, fatty fish, etc. Fats should be at a minimum 20-25% of your diet, and probably higher. They support hormone production and joint health. Dietary fat is not the enemy and won't make you fat if you don't get your overall calories too high.

Watch the cereals for a ton of sugar, there are very very few decent ones out there. Oats are a better option flavored with cinnamon/splenda/ginger/berries/etc.

Most yogurts are full of a bunch of sugar, so watch that. Cereals bars are also generally junk food for similar reasons (sugar, low fiber, etc)

You can eat before bed. Have something protein based with a healthy fat. Some do cottage cheese and peanut butter. Cottage cheese gives you a slow digesting protein to feed the muscles overnight, while peanut butter gives you healthy fat to slow down that digestion even more. There are other options, though, but don't fall for the "rule" that you can't eat late at night or you'll get fat. It's bogus.



Odin gave you good advice about workout plans. 3x a week full body lifting or 4 day upper/lower/upper/lower splits would be great.

Concentrate on big mass building moves. Things like squats, deadlifts, overhead pushing, pullups/pulldowns, vertical pushing like bench press, vertical pulling like rows. Don't spend a lot of time on things like curls that work small muscles. Most of those muscles will be worked right now via other things...biceps get work in rows and chinups for instance and when trying to add muscle as a beginner, you need the big hormonal responses from bigger movements more than small ones from single joint exercises.

Try to balance out your pulling exercises to your pulls, so don't make the common mistake of just benching and curling for upper body. If you push horizontally, make sure you do some corresponding horizontal pulling (barbell rows, dumbbell rows, cable rows, etc). Doing so will help your shoulders stay healthy and prevent posture problems from muscular imbalances.