G'day Guys,

This is long, but I appreciate the time and effort the people put into this forum so I'll provide as much info as I can and hopefully it will help you to help me.

My name is Shane. I'm a 26 year old male from Adelaide, South Australia (see Kangaroos, shrimps on the barbie) ;)

I came accross Johns site last week and it was such a huge eye opener. John was in a similar situation to what I'm currently in at the moment, and he also had a similar body shape to what I currently own. Here I am, sitting at my PC (I'm a web designer) late at night and I came accross this website. So, I'm reading John's story, looking at photos and suddenly it just hits me. I am this guy, similar type of employment, with pretty much the same body, right here, right now, just as he was 5 years ago. Unhealthy, unfit and overweight. Reading his story was just a massive eye opener. A kick in the face. A kick up the arse? You bet.

I've been coming back to this site every day, since 25th March, reading some of the stickies in the forums and taking in as much info as I could. You could say that I've pretty much read a fair whack of John's archive too. Although some of the info is a blur and un-graspable as of yet (I'm sure it'll come with time), I'm trying to take it all in.

I'm not here to find out how to get slim in 4 weeks. I want to change my whole lifestyle - My food intake, my fitness and my body.

I want to be a new person. A better person.

This forum looks like a great community, and I want to be a part of it as much as possible. I WANT help, NEED help, and I'm looking to you guys for it. I'm not normally one to ask for help (typical male), but I've decided to let my guard down and ask for it.

I do have some questions, however it might be easier if I ask them at the end of this rant so you don't have to rummage for them.

So, here's a bit about me if you're interested;

I'm 6ft 3in and weigh 113kg (249lbs, according to a weight converter). Going by what I have read this is no doubt overweight, but was fairly obvious to me just by looking in the mirror. Overall I have a fairly good build, but this is the only thing that perhaps works in my favour.

I have changed my diet completely. I haven't had a can of coke or any junk food in 2 weeks. I have been drinking approximately 2L of water each day and my diet, in general, is around the 2000 calorie mark. I have the Australian version of CalorieKing and have been using this is a means of watching my calories and organising my food intake (so far). In terms of metabolism, its pretty good and I was always very athletic as a kid and teenager, right up until I was about 19/20 years old. Then it all went downhill from there health-wise.

I have a gym membership and since the day after I read John's story, I have been attending the Gym *every* morning without fail. Up until 2 days ago, I had not been including any weight training in my routine and simply focusing on cardio for 30-40 mins. For the first few sessions I walked for 30 minutes at a moderate pace. Gradually, I have been removing the walking from my routine and started interval walking/running.

Yesterday I did a 10 minute walk and 23 minutes of interval training; 1 Minute moderate run and 1 minute moderate walk. I'm going to increase this to 27 minutes of interval training within the next week. The progression so far is great and I feel ALIVE.

In terms of weight training, I started yesterday. This is the area I would like to receive help on the most so I can get a decent routine in motion. I am new to weight training, have no clue in regards to what each apparatus/exercise is called (have been using exrx.com/bodybuilding.com to get an idea) and this is what I'm currently doing;

DB Concentration Curls
Incline Dumbbell Flyes
Lat Pulldowns
Barbell Curls
Chest Press (machine)
Upper Pec Deck (machine)

For the past 2 days I have been really sore (as to be expected) and decided to have a rest day to be on the careful side. I was going to go for a cardio session like I did yesterday, but decided against it as my upper pecs and biceps have taken a beating. The pain is a good pain (I really do like it), and I know I will be pretty sore for the next few weeks when doing weights whilst my body adjusts.

If you need any specific diet information let me know. I *have* changed my diet to healthier foods and I do have Optimum Nutrition Gold 100% Whey Protein Shakes after each workout and use them as a snack meal once a day, but I am still a n00b in the food intake area. Any extra pointers would be great.

My Questions (for now);

1. John - this ones for you; You mention that for the first 6 weeks you did cardio to prepare yourself for HIIT (I'm currently in preparation at the moment so I can hit it hard). Did this include weight training or was it just pure cardio during that time? Am I better off sticking to cardio or should I do both from the get-go? I guess anyone can answer this, you all seem pretty switched on. :)

2. Is CalorieKing software a decent way of monitoring my food intake? Can anyone shed some light on this from a community perspective? CalorieKing advises me that my calorie limit is 2000 - Is this correct and should I be eating a bit less in order to help with weight loss?

3. Are the weight exercises that I have selected a good choice? Should I change any of them or can anyone give me a routine for the first leg of my journey?

4. Is there any further information that you might need from me that will help you assess me / help you provide me with information?


Thanks for your time guys, it really is appreciated. I look forward to your replies.

Cheers!

Shane.

1. John - this ones for you; You mention that for the first 6 weeks you did cardio to prepare yourself for HIIT (I'm currently in preparation at the moment so I can hit it hard). Did this include weight training or was it just pure cardio during that time? Am I better off sticking to cardio or should I do both from the get-go? I guess anyone can answer this, you all seem pretty switched on. :)

2. Is CalorieKing software a decent way of monitoring my food intake? Can anyone shed some light on this from a community perspective? CalorieKing advises me that my calorie limit is 2000 - Is this correct and should I be eating a bit less in order to help with weight loss?

3. Are the weight exercises that I have selected a good choice? Should I change any of them or can anyone give me a routine for the first leg of my journey?

4. Is there any further information that you might need from me that will help you assess me / help you provide me with information?
Shane.

Hello Shane and welcome to the forums. To answer a few of your questions I don't know about CalorieKing but I use fitday to track all my food intake and what not. I'm guessing the softwares are similar so you're good there. In regards to your lifting I'm a bit puzzled. Are doing those exercises everyday? Generally people train a body part once a week or have 2-3 full body workouts a week. I would not focus on the exercises that you've chosen, but instead I recommend you to do more compound lifting. Exercises that involve more muscles like deadlifts, squats and pullups. Other than that if you can post a sample of what you eat during the day we can help you out there. Also don't fret a whole lot about cardio. Theres no doubt that it's very helpful but diet is about 80% of the work.

- Necross

Welcome Shane! I'm glad to hear that you've decided to change your life for the better. John is great proof that if you stick with this lifestyle you can make amazing changes.

You say that you are taking 2000 Cals a day. I'm no expert, but that seems a little light to me. Read this thread (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=1222). It has great information on how to calculate a starting point for burning fat, without burning too much muscle. You're going to want to keep that muscle. According to the formula, assuming moderate activity, you should be eating about 1000 more calories a day. You don't want your body to go into starvation mode, because it will try to store the fat and burn muscle. This is the last thing you want.

Good luck and stick with it.

G'day Guys,

My Questions (for now);

1. John - this ones for you; You mention that for the first 6 weeks you did cardio to prepare yourself for HIIT (I'm currently in preparation at the moment so I can hit it hard). Did this include weight training or was it just pure cardio during that time? Am I better off sticking to cardio or should I do both from the get-go? I guess anyone can answer this, you all seem pretty switched on. :)

2. Is CalorieKing software a decent way of monitoring my food intake? Can anyone shed some light on this from a community perspective? CalorieKing advises me that my calorie limit is 2000 - Is this correct and should I be eating a bit less in order to help with weight loss?

3. Are the weight exercises that I have selected a good choice? Should I change any of them or can anyone give me a routine for the first leg of my journey?

4. Is there any further information that you might need from me that will help you assess me / help you provide me with information?


Thanks for your time guys, it really is appreciated. I look forward to your replies.

Cheers!

Shane.
HI Shane :wave: welcome to JSF ;)

1. one thing that you must not have gotten too in reading yet is that John fully admits that his first foray into training and dieting was a bit flawed and that he should have been focusing more on lifting... so lift lift lift :tucool:

2. Calorieking is fine for monitoring your intake... but you may want to look back in the stickies for the Harris Benedict formula for determining your calorie intake

3. good question... and you answer it in your question... LEGS!!! you NEED to be working your legs, some of the largest muscles in your body are in your legs and the more muscle you build the more fat you will lose ;) add in squats, lunges, full deadlifts (these also work your low back), leg extensions, leg curls, etc., etc., etc.

also... try to do more compound lifts than isolation moves.. for example... start your workout with pull downs (back) and bent over rows (back) then move on to a flat and/or incline bench press, then move into incline flies and isolation moves like bicep curls (although there are different schools of though on this... some people like to pre-exhaust with isolation moves and then go into the compound lifts... but to start off I would do the compounds first :nod:)

compound lifts include: squats, full deadlifts, bench press, etc... basically any move that utilizes stabalizing muscles in addition to the muscle of focus for the move... bicep curls only work your biceps, so they are an isolation move... but bench press uses your shoulders, biceps, triceps AND your chest muscles, so it's a compound movement ;)

4. if you give us a break down of your diet we could help you refine that a bit... if you want ;)

G'day Guys,

Here I am, sitting at my PC (I'm a web designer) late at night and I came accross this website.

Shane.

If only 'we' as web designers could lose weight from the stress we have trying to get out designs/code to work in Internet Explorer hey? lol .... good to see another fellow web designer in this forum :)

Thanks very much for the replies guys!

Necross - In terms of my weights, they are just some of the ideas I have been using for upper body workouts, not what I have been doing. I have only done one weights session so far to see how I would go and it has taken me 2 days to recover, but that was to be expected as it's given my body a good shake. I am definitely open to someone giving me a few routines to work with for the first part of my transformaton.

Blitzkrieg - In terms of calories, you are correct. I have been under-eating according to the method in the sticky and I have readjusted my total Calorie intake to 3209.1 (on a moderate training week - 5-6 days). CalorieKing allows you to set your own percentages for protein, calories, fat, fibre, sodium, etc so that has been done (49 : 31 : 20). Does this sound like a good starting point? Thanks very much for the help too!

Chameleon - Thanks very much for the useful info! I will definitely take what you have said on board. At the moment I haven't really used the weights room a whole lot so it's all very new (and daunting in a way) to me, but that's just another small hurdle that will get better with experience I guess.

I have been reading a bit in regards to the types of foods that I should be eating and it all sounds really good, so I went and did a huge shopping today to stock up for the journey and to get into strong habit.

These are some of the foods I have purchased;

eggs
low fat yoghurt
fresh fruit
dried fruit
oats/wheat cereals
whole wheat pita bread
wholegrain/rye breads
reduced fat cheese
wholemeal pasta
lean meats - turkey breast, other lean red meats
poultry - chicken breast
fish - tuna (in water), salmon (in water), sardines (in water)
fish - fresh salmon cutlets
brown rice, grains
fresh vegetables - broccoli, lettuce, carrots, green beans, mushrooms, peas, lentils
tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, tomato paste
natural peanut butter
cottage cheese
nuts/dried fruit mix

Now I just need to work out a weekly meal plan, which I'll probably use CalorieKing for.

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated!

I have found a possible routine to follow 3 times a week for weight training. I will be doing 25-30 mins interval cardio (1 minute walk, 1 minute run) for 6 days a week (mon-sat) with a rest day on sunday.

On 3 of these days (mon, wed, fri) the weight training will occur.

Below is a routine setup by Kris Gethin on bodybuilding.com which looked fairly decent, and is over a 12 week period. This is the routine for the first 1-2 weeks:

Day 1: Chest, Triceps & Abs Sets Reps Dumbbell Bench Press (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Dumbbell+Bench +Press')) 3 8-12 Incline Bench Press (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Barbell+Inclin e+Bench+Press+-+Medium+Grip')) 2 8-12 Decline Bench Press (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Decline+Barbel l+Bench+Press')) 2 8-12 Cable Pushdowns (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Triceps+Pushdo wn')) 3 8-12 Overhead Extensions (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Standing+Overh ead+Barbell+Triceps+Extension')) 2 8-12 Crunches (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Crunches')) 3 12-15
Day 2: Back, Biceps & Calves Sets Reps Lateral Pulldown (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Wide-Grip+Lat+Pulldown')) 3 8-12 Cable Rows (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Seated+Cable+R ows')) 2 12-15 Hyperextensions (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Hyperextension s+(Back+Extensions)')) 2 12-15 Barbell Curls (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Barbell+Curl') ) 3 12-15 Alternate Dumbbell Curls (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Dumbbell+Alter nate+Bicep+Curl')) 2 12-15 Seated Calf Raises (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Seated+Calf+Ra ise')) 3 12-15
Day 3: Legs, Shoulders & Abs Sets Reps Leg Extension (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Leg+Extensions ')) 2 12-15 Hamstring Curl (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Seated+Leg+Cur l')) 2 12-15 Leg Press (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Leg+Press')) 2 12-15 Shoulder Press (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Barbell+Should er+Press')) 2 8-12 Side Lateral Raises (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Side+Lateral+R aise')) 3 8-12 Rear Lateral Raises (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Seated+Bent+Ov er+Rear+Delt+Raise')) 3 8-12 Lying Leg Raises (javascript:popUp('exerpop.php?Name=Flat+Bench+Lyi ng+Leg+Raise')) 3 12-15
The other weeks are located here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/krisgethin_guide8.htm

Does this look substantial enough? Would anyone recommend removing/reducing any of these?

Cheers,

Shane.