Improving my exercise and losing more weight

[manlymatt83]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some sports/athlete experts to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I used to be 270 pounds. Now, I'm 200. I successfully lost about 70 pounds just by working out, running, and eating right.

Here's what I do on a daily basis:

If I go to the gym, I do the 30 minute eliptical program, or I run 1.5 miles on the treadmill at around 7.0. If I run slower than that, I get shin splints =(

If I run on the beach, I run about 2 miles, in about 20 minutes.

I do this at least every week day, but sometimes weekends.

My weight has hovered between 195 and 202 now for a good 5-6 months. Its frustrating because I'm not losing anymore weight, though actually some of my clothes have gotten too big, which makes me think somehow I've lost some more fat around my belly even though it isn't showing up on the scale.

But I have hypertension. And I finally got off the medicine for it, and now it hovers (naturally) around 120/80 to 140/90. I'd love to get rid of those times when its hovering around 140/90.

Can anyone tell me what the best way to lose more weight and more body fat and get into better shape would be than I am now? Should I force myself to run longer, such as 2.0 - 2.5 miles? Or should I run slower so that my run is longer?

Should I look at my diet more than I do? Though I don't think its that bad. Its pretty good actually.


Any advice would be appreciated! The first 70 were easy, these are hard. My goal weight is around 180 and about 15% body fat.

 

[Chrono]

Change your eating habits you fatty.

 

[HN]

Now instead of running longer, run harder. Sprint (as hard as you can) for 10 seconds, drop for 20 pushups (or burpees even better). Repeat for 10 rounds. Next time you do it, try to beat your time.

or something like that. hard intervals, man. mix it up and crank'em out trying to better yourself each time.

 

[sash1]

people have had success losing weight doing HIT cardio. i'm probably not the best one to describe it, but it's easy to find on teh intarnets and bodybuilding.com, etc. it's basically, walk 90 sec, run 60, or whatever. i've heard good things about HIT and it's effectiveness, so i suggest you take a look-see.

diet: lower carb/sugar intake.

gym/weight training is good. gain muscle, burn fat, speed up that metabolism.

 

[RagingBITCH]

What's your typical diet look like on a day to day basis? Are you keeping track of calorie intake?

You probably need to extend the amount of time you're doing cardio, and also do it on an empty stomach in the morning after you get up. (If you don't like doing it on an empty stomach, drink a small protein shake with water beforehand)

Start of the year I was 173lbs. (5'10") I started running on an empty stomach for about 3 miles and by mid-August, got to about 163. Around that time I bumped that up to about 5-6 miles, and I'm now at about 152. (Still not completely shredded, but at the lowest bodyfat I've ever been, and am stronger than I've ever been weight lifting wise)

Simply put of course, losing weight is burning more calories than you intake in. You really should watch that closer.

 

[Special K]

Ah what the hell, copied and pasted from one of the many other identical threads we get on here about losing fat:


Here is the problem with most of the advice you are going to get: it is too vague. "cut out sweets", "don't drink pop", "don't eat after X PM", it's all too vague to be very useful. For maximal results, you need to take a more methodical approach.

First of all, you cannot spot reduce, so doing crunches will not burn any of the fat off your stomach.

Second, losing fat is ultimately a matter of burning slightly more calories than you consume over an extended period of time.

What you need to do is start tracking exactly what you eat each day. Fitday makes it easy. You will also need a starting point for your BMR - this is the number of calories you would need to eat in a day to exactly maintain your current weight. You can find an estimate here - make sure to click on the link labeled "Daily Calorie Needs" to find an estimate based on activity level.

Now, eat that number of calories each day for a week, and track your weight first thing each morning. If at the end of the week, you have not lost a pound, then cut 300 calories from your daily total and eat that amount for each day of the next week. Continue to track your weight, and keep making reductions until you are losing about 1 lb./week. I recommend getting 40% of your calories from protein, 40% from carbs, and 20% from healthy fats. Need help on what to eat? Check out this link

If you want to preserve muscle, I would recommend a weightlifting program focused on basic compound movements, low reps, and heavy weight. This will help persuade your body to burn fat instead of muscle while you are in a caloric deficit.

If you want to do some cardio on top of this then go for it, but it is not required for losing fat. If you want to do cardio, I would recommend shorter, high intensity sessions instead of longer, lower intensity.

Finally, you could have just done a search. This question, or something similar to it, gets posted at least once a week.

Also, check out the link in my sig if you really want to get in depth with this. There are lots of knowledgable people on that board who would be more than happy to help beginners.

I swear, I need to make the "ATOT Bodybuilding/Physique Improvement sticky" or something.

 

[imported_Imp]

If you're maxed out on exercise, time to look at diet. No idea what is "healthy" (obviously veggies and less red meats), but you can almost guess.

 

[RapidSnail]

If a person wants to lose weight, the ONLY essential thing that he needs to do is manage the food he eats. Exercise is extremely useful, and always recommended, but it can only carry you so far, as you have already noticed.

The next step to dropping weight would be to monitor the amount of calories that you eat throughout the day. Try an online calorie counter to get an estimate of what your body uses for maintenance throughout the day, and then register to an online tracker and plan your meals before you eat them. Start by eating the recommended amount of calories required for maintenance for one week. If you haven't lost a pound by the end of the week, drop the calories by another 300 or so. Eventually you will get to the point will you can control the amount of weight you wish to lose or gain by calorie manipulation.

The hardest thing a person usually experiences when trying to lose weight is keeping the body "full." You've probably heard it before, but eating lots of vegetables helps when you are on a diet. Most vegetables carry very little caloric value and large amounts of dietary fiber. Fiber expands as it absorbs liquid and takes up more space in the stomach which gives the feeling of fullness that can help prevent you from splurging. Also try to limit the amount of calories you consume from liquids, as this does the exact opposite of what fiber does.


Edit: D*mn you, SpecialK!!!

 

[SludgeFactory]

I don't see any resistance training listed there. Make sure it's OK based on your history of hypertension, but it can really burn up some calories. Without seeing what your diet is like, the lack of weight training is the most glaring problem to me.

 

[Unmoosical]

Try something different. How about biking/spinning? Try a different type of cardio for a while and than go back to running. Just mix it up.

 

[gamepad]

You should increase your run distance. It's a good idea to not increase it by more than 10% per week to prevent injuries.

Also, adding pushups/crunches and or weight lifting can help.