Some exercise and diet questions for the fitness gurus

[Arkitech]

Starting today I'll be working out twice daily. For example this morning I woke up at about 4:30am and did 20 minutes of cardio, light weights and a few ab exercises. This afternoon when I get off of work I'll do another 20 minutes of cardio, more weights (this time more intensive), pushups and ab exercises.

Tomorrow I plan on doing cardio twice, abs twice and I'll just concentrate on lower body weight lifting for the afternoon only. My goal is to do this type of working out at least 4-5 days per week. Maybe more if my schedule allows.


I'm hoping that this type of schedule will help me lose weight and gain muscle a bit faster. Anyone have any experience or good results with more than one workout in a day


My next concern is my diet, I want to follow a low carb diet (less than 20 grams) for the next 2 weeks. I also want to increase from 3 meals a day to at least 6. What are some of the meal plans you guys follow? All suggestions are welcome.



Finally my last question is in regards to actual weight and fat loss. I've been gradually cutting back on the bad foods and increasing my exercise for the past 3 weeks. I've been actually doing pretty good in staying away from the breads, fast foods, starches and sweets. And as I mentioned before each week my exercise routine has gotten better and better. My problem is that 3 weeks ago I weighed 266, this morning I still weigh 266. I'm assuming that I made some muscle gains and fat loss which account for my weight being the same.

But I wonder when should I start to see my weight coming down to the number I should be closer to?

Will I lose weight more quickly in the future if continue this routine?


my stats are as follows

age - 29
height - 6'1
weight - 266
target weight 200-220


With the regimen I'm currently on, would losing 40-50 pounds in 3-4 months seem reasonable?

I'm also a type 2 diabetic, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference in weight loss.



thanks for any tips or suggestions

 

[SaltBoy]

I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but I can offer this: Forget about the 20 minute workout in the morning and 20 in the afternoon. Do all 40 minutes at once. It's not until you workout for at least 20 minutes that the body starts to burn fat.

In other words, if you workout for 40 minutes straight, only 20 minutes will be fat-burning minutes. If you work out at separate times, you probably won't burn any fat at all.

 

[StageLeft]

If you've not lost weight after 3 weeks your problem is that you're consuming too many calories. adding excercise and changing food is great, but ultimately the fastest weight loss comes from severely restricting calorie intake.

In regards to being a diabetic normally I'd not bother telling somebody to consult a doctor but I think you should, especially if you're going to be playing with carb intake so drastically.

 

[Fausto]

Okay, I'm no guru, but I've been a competitive cyclist for 10 years, so I'm fairly familiar with most aspects of training and nutrition.

1. two-a-day workouts are good if you're looking to burn more calories as your metabolic rate stays elevated for a while after you've worked out. If you hit it twice per day, you keep that rate up longer and thereby burn more calories. The downside is that it's easier to burn out mentally this way as it may seem like you're always working out. Maybe do two-a-days a few days a week and a solid hour other days for variety. Also, for max results in cardio or lifting, you really want to do them separately. It's hard to really lift with intensity if you're already wiped from running and vice versa. Stick with the overall approach for a month or so and then start getting more specific and lengthening the workouts (particularly the cardio as this is what really burns calories).

2. I'm not personally a big fan of the uber-low carb diets. I tend to focus more on what time of day I'm consuming them....ie- high carbs in the morning to get you going and then more low-carb veggies and lean protein later in the day. The more/smaller meals thing is also good, but takes a little discipline to eat an appropriate amount at each "feeding". It's easy to overeat doing this so be conscious of how much you're getting at each sitting.

3. Weight loss is basically as simple as Calories consumed - Calories burned (exercise + Basal Met. Rate) = weight lost or gained. This article at LanceArmstrong.com pretty much spells out this concept. Granted, it's a huge PITA to figure out how much you are consuming all the time and keeping track of it, but doing this for a week or so will give you a pretty good idea of where your "balance" is from day to day. Losing a pound of fat requires a caloric deficit of 3500 calories; intense cardio (such as running, cycling at 20+mph) burns around 750 calories per hour, you burn around 2000-2500 calories per day just existing. The maximum amount of weight you can reasonably lose is about 2lbs per week (7000 calorie deficit per week = 1000 cal deficit per day). There are examples where you may lose more, but these require either extremely reduced calorie intake or really large amounts of exercise (I went from 205 to 180 in about 2 months last springs as I was doing 15-20 hours per week of cycling in the process of getting ready for all the spring racing here in the southeast). Shoot for the slow and steady weight loss and keep up the diet and exercise regardless of what the scale says. The loss will come in fits and starts and you'll hit little plateaus along the way...just don't get discouraged. It can be done.

If you really get serious, you may find that a heart rate monitor will help you to estimate the calories you are burning while working out. The Polar M Series are good ones to look at as they will give you a good estimation of calories burned for a give workout, as well as integrated fiteness tests and suggestions for heart rate "target zones" while working out.

Best of luck,
Fausto

 

[Arkitech]

Actually lowering carbs in my case is a good thing, carbs break down to sugar which is what diabetics have problems handling.

My I should start counting calories, although I have lowered them significantly

 

[StageLeft]

Excellent advice from Fausto. I also recommend counting calories. It becomes second nature soon enough, otherwise you can wrongly think you're on a severely restricted diet when in fact you're not.

 

[StageLeft]

Just read the article. It's very simple, and also very good. Although certain tricks can help losing weight (trimming off all carbs for instance) most peope get fat simply by overeating. That is why they got fat, and by undereating they can lose weight. The most reliable, easiest, and safest way to lose weight is to ensure that your calories are lower than your basic maintenance requirements. Doing it with excercise and restricted diet is the simplest way.

 

[RegaPlanet]

Working out twice a day here also. One muscle group at a time. Training for strength/size and it seems to be working amazingly. Been workin for 7-8yrs and have found this to be best for me. I try and keep 6-8hrs between workouts so I can get at least a couple full meals in between. Also throw in cardio 2-3 times a week as one of the two workouts a day and take a day off every 5-7 days, sometimes two days depending on how I feel. I dont workout to a set week/month/year schedule either. Just whenever I feel ready and recooperated to hit a muscle again.

 

[Fausto]

Counting may also help identify sources of calories that are significant, yet easy to omit. This is beer in my case (4 beers = 5-600 kcal = just undid all that hour of cycling you did today, dumbass)

Another tip: take a short (20-30min) nap after your workout and post-workout snack. Will give you a nice shot of human growth hormone that will both help with your recovery from weights (rebulds muscle) and with weight loss. This is a well-known fact with cyclists which is why we're so damn lazy when we're not on the bike. I tell my wife this constantly..."I have to nap! It's part of my training, dammit!!"

Fausto

 

[StageLeft]

In regards to rest the best job to get huge and fit is somebody who sits at a desk all the time so that all of the hours of your life you're not in the gym you're resting

 

[Fausto]

Ah if only it were so simple. I'd be the fittest mofo in the world with all the desk-rest I get (I'm a federal employee) Nope, you gotta be sleeping. Then your bod says "Oh, the big guy's out...let's do some repair work while he's snoozing." Hence the HGH shot.

Fausto

 

[RegaPlanet]

here's a list of beers with how many calories are found per 100ml for ya fausto1

BEER

 

[MomAndSkoorbaby]

Fausto

You have some really great advice there!

Ditto to what Fausto and Skoorb said. They seem to be very well versed.

Now I am off to check out these links...

 

[WageSlave]

For someone that is looking for a weight training fitness program, and is new to it all



check out Body for Life , by Bill Phillips (of EAS) this is a great book, recommended to me by my Doctor. My wife and I have been on the 'plan' for 3 weeks now, and the difference in how I feel and look already is really amazing. I'm not saying it is the ONLY plan out there that is great, but for someone that really needs advice,this plan lays it all out in a very good simple to understand manner...


good luck

 

[WageSlave]

Oh, and doing a ton of cardio is not the most effective way to lose weight, adding lean muscle IS. Lean muscle burns fat 24/7.... You really need a balance between weight training and cardio, and you never need to starve yourself. You see those guys and gals taht spend an hours+ on the treadmill? notice how they are thin, but the skin on their arms etc is all loose and hanging? well they have no muscle tone because they arent waeight training at all....



that was a good article though


continue your education, read the phillips book, its a great starting point. and valuable even for people who think they 'know' whats going on as far as fitness is concerned.. there are alot of people walking around out there with misconceptions, and old fashioned fitness ideas that have been debunked by research.

 

[darkjester]

<< here's a list of beers with how many calories are found per 100ml for ya fausto1
BEER >>


Fixed Link!
BTW, how many ml's in a can or bottle of beer?

Enjoy!

 

[Fausto]

12oz can/bottle = 355ml.



<< Oh, and doing a ton of cardio is not the most effective way to lose weight, adding lean muscle IS. Lean muscle burns fat 24/7 >>



I have to disagree somewhat here, lean muscle doesn't burn [ChrisFoleyVoice] Jack Squat!![/ChrisFoleyVoice] unless you're doing something with it.....like cardio. Having an increased amount of lean mass will raise your BMR somewhat as you now have more to "feed" on a daily basis, but not nearly to the same degree that an hour or so of cardio will.

Go http://www.runnersweb.com/running/bmr.html for a quck calculation of BMR. If you play around with the weight figure, you'll see that even adding 10 lbs of lean mass doesn't make a huge difference in your BMR on a daily basis.

You are absolutely correct that the best approach is a combination of cardio and strength training. Check into the heart rate monitor thing (don't know what kind of budget you're on). Makes my life a ton easier when I can just look at the monitor after a workout and know how many calories I just burned and where I am for the day in terms of the caloric deficit I'm shooting for if I'm trying to lose weight.

EDIT- Sorry, after rereading the above, I sounded like weights weren't important. They are. A combo of strength training and cardio is the ticket for solid overall fitness. I was only pointing out that cardio burns a lot more calories on a minute-by-minute basis. Sorry.

Fausto

 

[Smbu]

Doing a lot of cardio does help to burn calories. After changed what I ate and drank early last year I started doing a lot of cardio work.(usually at least 1-2 hours per day, actually I still do that much cardio) I was able to drop 40 pounds in about 4 months.(I'm 5'10" and I went from 195->155) Now I just need to start doing some more weight training to tone up and put on a little more mass.

A good idea to eliminate some calories from your diet is to drink mainly water. It has 0 calories unlike all of the other sodas, juices, etc which usually have about 100 calories per 8oz serving. Definately cut out any fast food you are eating and stop eating any candy(especially chocolate ones).

I probably could have lost the weight quicker if I would have eliminated more unhealthy, fattening foods from my diet from the beginning.

 

[StageLeft]

I have read that a pound of lean muscle requires 40 calories a day to maintain. Add on 10 pounds and you're needing a good 400 or so extra calories a day. I'm not sure this is linear and the numbers may be a tad high. On that BMR scale adding 10 pounds won't raise the calorie intake much because the average 190 lb person doesn't have 10 pounds of lean muscle over the average 180 lber - they have a bit more bone mass perhaps, organs, body fat, and a tad more muscle. All things equal a well muscled person will require many more calories a day than a non-muscled person. This is why bodybuilders and weight lifters can eat so much without gaining weight (not including their excercise).

For the average person this helps long term but shortterm if they can burn 600 calories a day from cardio that is great. However, even better the average person can also shave 1000 calories from their diet quite safely.

 

[Fausto]

I dug around a little and came up with a BMR calculator that takes into account lean mass:

BMR (men and women) = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg)

If you convert kg to lbs this is about 10 extra calories per lb of lean muscle. Still, with your 10lb subject this is 700cal per week and 35000cal per year......10lbs lost per year with no additional cardio.


Fausto

 

[dfi]

I'm no guru, but I do workout. And this is what I have found from personal experience:

I can't do cardio and weight-training in the same session. That is, not unless I do one, the other, or both half-assed. After I weight-train (usually about an hour), I'm pretty much spent. If I do a hard cardio session, there is no way I will be able to go into the weight room and do any decent amount of weight. I personally can't get a satisfying weight-training session unless I don't do cardio.

I'm starting to make some of my days cardio/weights, but I'm trying to keep them about 8 hours apart. This morning I did cardio. Tonight, I'm doing weights.

dfi

 

[StageLeft]

I believe that the BMR's lean mass is probably a combination of muscle, bones, organs, and non fatty-tissue. I am not positive of that though. BMR isn't bad but it does not take into account muscle mass enough. According to various formulas I need 2000-2200 calories a day to maintain body weight, when in fact I believe it is at least 2500.

 

[Fausto]

<< According to various formulas I need 2000-2200 calories a day to maintain body weight, when in fact I believe it is at least 2500. >>



You forgot to account for all the extra calories that neffing burns.....hey, you could be the next fitness guru....."NEFFERCIZE with Skoorb!!"..../me ducks


hehe....'jes kiddin.

Fausto

 

[darkjester]

<< Go http://www.runnersweb.com/running/bmr.html for a quck calculation of BMR. >>


Fixed Link! (again)

BTW, this is all great information. I myself am losing weight at the moment and I'm absorbing so much great information from you guys! Thanks a mil!

 

[frazzled]

Arkitech,

2 things:

1) If you have never embarked on a heavy exercise regimen before and particularly if you are in not great shape to start, you should probably see your physician for a physical and basic diabetic/metabolic blood work. It's the prudent thing to do. If there is any significant history of heart disease in your family (especially in younger males) you *really* should see your MD.

2) Whatever program of diet + exercise you decide to follow, try to put something together that you can actually enjoy and follow for the long term. Moderation in everything is a simple rule of thumb and it really works.

BTW, dropping your weight will definitely have a positive effect on your diabetes (not to mention your cholesterol and blood pressure). As a matter of fact, there is every chance that a weight loss of 40 lbs will put you back into glycemic control (another good reason to see the doc because he/she can track your progress.) You are making a very positive step towards a *much* healthier and probably longer life.

Best of luck to you!

fraz