Weightloss question(s)

[Kur]

[Myspace]I'm 19,I weigh 302, I wanna change that to something around 180 in the next 10 months (before june/july of next year) [/Myspace]

I can be at the gym 5 days a week for 1-4 hours.
So my gym question(s) are:

- Suggestions on time in the gym, hour, 2, 3, 4?
- I know I should mix it up however should I focus more on cardio or more on weight lifting? (I'm not looking for really big muscles just want to drop the weight, but don't wanna have the excess skin)
- Any suggested pre-work out things to do (except stretching)
- Suggested minimum miles I should run, or minimum sets of reps I should do?
- High weight low reps or low weight high reps? (to start)

I don't eat fast food much anymore, maybe 1-2 times a week, I don't touch the sweats very much if at all. I drink Sobe, water, Vitamin water, and if I get desperate the "zero calorie drinks zomg".

Nutrition Questions:

- Should I switch to just water or is sobe an ok drink? I like it because of the no carbonated water and it's tastes better imo. (it is high in calories though, 390 per bottle but it's fairly big bottle)
- I'm trying to not eat past 7/8 at night, I do have to work sometimes like a 4-10 shift and don't get a lunch break any suggestions? I work at a CVS so not too much healthy food to have for dinner.
- I like cooking, any places specifically with some recipes?

Thanks to all that respond!

 

[Wapp]

Stop drinking Sobe and Vitamin water. Both have too much sugar + calories. Drink WATER. ALL DAY.

Bring your own food to work with you. Use that sweet employee discount and buy a gallon of CVS brand water and sip from it all day long.

 

[Alphathree33]

Cut out ALL fast food, not just some of it

Control calorie intake carefully

Go to the gym 3-5 times per week, not more than 1 hour per session for weight lifting

If you want to lose that much weight, you're going to have to try redefining your methodology with more than "sometimes" and "usually." Try "ALWAYS" or "NEVER" because that's the kind if discipline it will take.

Lastly, I am SCRAWNY. I weigh 140 lbs and I'm 6 foot tall. I've always thought LOSING weight was the easy thing to do. NOT EATING is non-action. It's something you can simply sit on your ass and accomplish. It's amazing, really.

To GAIN weight, you have to actively EAT, which you must on some level PLAN to do.

So look at it this way: you have the really easy task. I have been trying to gain weight for years without luck.

 

[Alphathree33]

Originally posted by: Wapp
Stop drinking Sobe and Vitamin water. Both have too much sugar + calories. Drink WATER. ALL DAY.

Yeah, if OP couldn't do something as simple as look at the nutrition label and see CALORIES on those things, that's not good.

EDIT: If the OP wants to transfer some of his extra calories over to me, my body will happily take them.

 

[Flyback]

1. Don't do more than 1.5 hours. Not just for your weight, but even if you were in shape. There is no need for it. Ever.
2. Start slow. Set achievable goals. Given your weight, 120lbs is achievable in 10 months. People recommend 2lbs/week but you're at a weight where you can push more.
3. Find cardio you enjoy doing. Don't pick a routine you hate, else you will stop. When cutting, I burn less on the cross trainer than the rower, but I would probably quit the rower after a week :laugh:
4. You can eat at night. I eat right before bed even when cutting.
5. I wouldn't piss away daily calories in a drink. Save it for food stuff instead.
6. Look up some of the diets on bodybuilding.com or any other health forum. The same goes for lifting programs and cardio ideas.
7. If you can't get a lunch break, can you get like 5 minutes to scarf something down? If you break up your eating into 6 meals for the day, then the portion won't be that large and you can probably eat it at work. Don't go without eating whatever you do.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

You definitely need to add cardio to balance the weight-lifting. Running is a great choice.

If you haven't run before, make sure to take it easy starting out (i.e. 30 min/3 times per week at a pace where you can still hold a conversation). You can intersperse walk breaks if that's too much. Cap your volume and intensity increases to no more than 10% per week, to reduce the risk of injury. As long as your legs aren't hurting 2 days after a run, you should be ok.

Don't get too hung up on the time - it's more important to have an interesting route and not worry about how long it takes to complete it. Try to run with friends if you can, and make sure to vary your routes so you don't get bored. Have fun!

 

[wheresmybacon]

Cut out all simple sugars. Juices, sodas, Sobe, Vitamin water; that crap is pure sugar. Drinking a couple/few of those can single handedly negate your entire workout for that day. If you must drink something other than water, drink 0 calorie stuff. Sobe Lean is fine, flavored waters like Propel are OK, you see where I'm going with this. I know people who've lost a ton of weight simply by cutting out their soda habit.

All fast food is off limits. Period. Simple carbs too.

I think what you'll find if you stick with this goal is that diet is everything. You can work your ass off in the gym, but if you're taking in garbage like fast food and sugary/sweet drinks you will see little to no results.

Check out the beginners section of the forums @ http://www.johnstonefitness.com/. There's a lot of information in there, but don't get intimidated. Read the stickied posts. Lots of good info.

Good luck.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
You definitely need to add cardio to balance the weight-lifting. Running is a great choice.

If you haven't run before, make sure to take it easy starting out (i.e. 30 min/3 times per week at a pace where you can still hold a conversation). You can intersperse walk breaks if that's too much. Cap your volume and intensity increases to no more than 10% per week, to reduce the risk of injury. As long as your legs aren't hurting 2 days after a run, you should be ok.

Don't get too hung up on the time - it's more important to have an interesting route and not worry about how long it takes to complete it. Try to run with friends if you can, and make sure to vary your routes so you don't get bored. Have fun!

Unless he's quite tall I wouldn't recommend running yet given the chance of injury. That's a lot of weight on a normal-sized frame. Since it sounds like he's going to a gym he should have acccess to a lot of low-impact machines that will allow his workout to be dictated by his cardio fitness level and not the stress/pounding/pain on his joints.

How tall are you, OP?

 

[Special K]

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, "not eating after X PM" is not good advice, so don't follow it. Ideally you want to be eating all the way up until bedtime.

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. Try spacing your caloric intake evenly among 6 meals throughout the day. 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.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Originally posted by: Special K
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, "not eating after X PM" is not good advice, so don't follow it. Ideally you want to be eating all the way up until bedtime.

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. Try spacing your caloric intake evenly among 6 meals throughout the day. 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.

you HAD to have copy/pasted that, cause I've read it 10 times now!

Anyway, the advice is spot on. Personally, I use a program called Calorie King to track my intake, it has an update-able database and you can track weight and stuff too. I haven't used fitday, just giving some other options though.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Wonderful Pork


you HAD to have copy/pasted that, cause I've read it 10 times now!

Anyway, the advice is spot on. Personally, I use a program called Calorie King to track my intake, it has an update-able database and you can track weight and stuff too. I haven't used fitday, just giving some other options though.

Like I said:

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

If people keep posting essentially the same question, I'll keep giving them the same advice, which I believe to be solid in most cases.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Wonderful Pork


you HAD to have copy/pasted that, cause I've read it 10 times now!

Anyway, the advice is spot on. Personally, I use a program called Calorie King to track my intake, it has an update-able database and you can track weight and stuff too. I haven't used fitday, just giving some other options though.

Like I said:

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

If people keep posting essentially the same question, I'll keep giving them the same advice, which I believe to be solid in most cases.

no i completely agree with you, and your post. You should make that sticky.

 

[Randum]

DRINK strictly water, and you will see results almost immediately.

 

[Kur]

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha

How tall are you, OP?

5'10"-5'11"

Thanks for all the advice everyone, Ive looked over it all and it looks like I have a lot ahead of me, but Ive gotta do it!

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Wonderful Pork

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Wonderful Pork


you HAD to have copy/pasted that, cause I've read it 10 times now!

Anyway, the advice is spot on. Personally, I use a program called Calorie King to track my intake, it has an update-able database and you can track weight and stuff too. I haven't used fitday, just giving some other options though.

Like I said:

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

If people keep posting essentially the same question, I'll keep giving them the same advice, which I believe to be solid in most cases.

no i completely agree with you, and your post. You should make that sticky.

Well if the AT admin would make the fitness forum like we've been asking, they could just make me a mod and I'll just sticky it there (with collaboration from SVT Cobra, Amused, Koing, krunchyknome, crt1530, and any of the other AT fitness people I forgot)

We'll just make the AT consolidated weightlifting/nutrition sticky.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

hungfarover - good point there; I was assuming the OP was taller.

Not to worry, cycling is a good low-impact activity. Kur - try using an exercise bike on days when you're not lifting. My advice above regarding running can still be applied to biking.

Also, don't underestimate the value of walking. Wherever and whenever you can, walk. Walk to the store, walk up stairs, go for a walk on your lunch break (as others said, though, don't skip a meal).

My experience - one summer during uni, I took a desk job and commuted on the bus. I worked out just as much as when I was in school (2-3 weight sessions per week; 80 km running) and my diet stayed the same. Yet, I put on 10 pounds in 4 months, simply because I was doing a lot of sitting, unlike when I walked around campus during the semester.

 

[Kur]

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

Could you suggest a maximum intake? Some sites say 1500 other say 2000 because of my size.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Kur

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

Could you suggest a maximum intake? Some sites say 1500 other say 2000 because of my size.

What did the calculator say when you plugged in your info? Use that as a starting point, track your weight, and make adjustments as I mention in my post.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Special K

Well if the AT admin would make the fitness forum like we've been asking, they could just make me a mod and I'll just sticky it there (with collaboration from SVT Cobra, Amused, Koing, krunchyknome, crt1530, and any of the other AT fitness people I forgot)

We'll just make the AT consolidated weightlifting/nutrition sticky.

Would be nice.

 

[Tencntraze]

For most males you generally shouldn't be going under 2000 calories. With too few calories your body will go into starvation mode and store extra fat or break down muscle for energy, neither of which are desirable outcomes. Follow the advice previously stated and shoot for no more than 2lbs/week, which is roughly a 1000 calorie deficit from your maintenance calorie level. Naturally this gets into a debatable area if one's maintenance level is 2500, but with your weight and height I don't suppose this is the case, especially if you factor in a (hopefully) more active lifestyle.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Wonderful Pork

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Wonderful Pork


you HAD to have copy/pasted that, cause I've read it 10 times now!

Anyway, the advice is spot on. Personally, I use a program called Calorie King to track my intake, it has an update-able database and you can track weight and stuff too. I haven't used fitday, just giving some other options though.

Like I said:

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

If people keep posting essentially the same question, I'll keep giving them the same advice, which I believe to be solid in most cases.

no i completely agree with you, and your post. You should make that sticky.

Well if the AT admin would make the fitness forum like we've been asking, they could just make me a mod and I'll just sticky it there (with collaboration from SVT Cobra, Amused, Koing, krunchyknome, crt1530, and any of the other AT fitness people I forgot)

We'll just make the AT consolidated weightlifting/nutrition sticky.

*cough* Please bump *cough*

I think a health & fitness forum would be a great addition to the AT Social forums.

 

[Rogodin2]

Most of us that are serious about health are already memebers at johnstonefitness.com.

Unfortunately most atots don't read that forum.

We really should have a health/fitness forum on this site.

If you're 302 and 5'11" you need to change your lifestyle. If you don't change your lifestyle you're not going to loose weight. Going to the gym 5 days a week is going to seem very awkward and if you can manage it you'll need some external support to keep going.

Cardio is very good, as is heavy short lifting. Post your picture and your desire at johnstonefitness.com.

THere is more information in those forums than you'll ever need.

Goodluck!

Rogo

 

[Kur]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Kur

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

Could you suggest a maximum intake? Some sites say 1500 other say 2000 because of my size.

What did the calculator say when you plugged in your info? Use that as a starting point, track your weight, and make adjustments as I mention in my post.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/caloriesmalecalc.html

Says 4000 >.>

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Kur

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Kur

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

Could you suggest a maximum intake? Some sites say 1500 other say 2000 because of my size.

What did the calculator say when you plugged in your info? Use that as a starting point, track your weight, and make adjustments as I mention in my post.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/caloriesmalecalc.html

Says 4000 >.>

That's not the one I linked to. I was referring to the calculator in my post.

 

[Kur]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Kur

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Kur

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

Could you suggest a maximum intake? Some sites say 1500 other say 2000 because of my size.

What did the calculator say when you plugged in your info? Use that as a starting point, track your weight, and make adjustments as I mention in my post.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/caloriesmalecalc.html

Says 4000 >.>

That's not the one I linked to. I was referring to the calculator in my post.

Sorry for the slow reply's and bumping but: You have a BMR of 2757.34. Should I cut it to 1500 or something around there?