YAWT: Want to do to get rid of my _____?

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Alright, I've got a gut, love handles and the beginnings of man boobs. I don't go to the gym, and don't want to. I want to work out around the house/neighborhood, but all I have is 1 semiheavy dumbell, and 2 5 pounders, and a cycling bike.

Starting about 3-4 weeks ago, about once or twice a week I started trying to get in shape. Starting slow, I bike for a mile or so, while doing punches with a 5 pound weight in each hand. I then, after a 5 or so minute break, do 1 sets of 15 curls (right term?) of the semi heavy dumbell on each arm. Then using the weight I do a set of 15 lifting the weight above my head working my triceps on each arm...then I repeat the curls, and tricep work until I can't do any more.

I do pushups when I can, but after lifting the weight, my arms are so tired I can only do just a few. And if I do the pushups first, then I can't do the weights. I don't really like doing the pushups do I usually just do the weights.

I despise doing crunches as I hurt my back at work about 4-5 years ago and it hurts to do them pretty bad.

But I want to get rid of the above mentioned gut, love handles and the beginnings of man boobs. I have started eating less. What other things should I put into my small routine...and I know I should do it more than 1-2 times a week...so how often? 3-4? 4-5?

Thanks.

 

[MazerRackham]

Do some light jogging, try for 20 minutes of continuous jogging at least three times per week (MWF). Or go swimming. Just go anything that gets your heart pumping and keep it that way for 20 minutes. Consistency is the key!

 

[filmmaker]

For right now just do half your regiment of pushups and curls that way you get both in. You'll slowly be able to do more if you push yourself.

And about the crunches: Don't lift your entire body from the ground. Just lay your body on the ground with your knees bent and on the floor and lift your head towards the ceiling and the sky. (Your back should come up slightly.) Less stress on the back and more work for the abs. Trust me.

Good luck

 

[Platypus]

If you're not willing to work hard, you won't gain anything.. or lose it in this case.

 

[fyleow]

You don't have to go to they gym in order to get fit, just get a good set of dumbells and you're set.

If you're serious about getting in shape you need to workout 7 days a week, do cardio every other day and weights the rest of the time.

BTW the exercise you are doing is called the military and it works shoulders primarily.

Take filmmaker's advice on crunches, just lift your upper body about 3 inches of the ground and hold for a few seconds and go back down again.

 

[Graphicd00d]

Try this program.

 

[Jugernot]

For one thing, 5 minutes is too much of a break between workouts. It's best to only rest like 30-60 seconds between routines. This helps burn fat as your body doesn't have time to return to normal pulse, etc.

As for biking, 1 miles isn't much. You need to do more like 5 miles at least. I walk over 4 miles everyday on my treadmill and I weight 330lbs. If I can walk that... you can bike it.

Personally, it just sounds like you are lazy and aren't serious about getting into shape. I've lost over 50 lbs in the last 5 months and it took shear determination to get to this point. I'm going to keep going until I lose another 80 or so pounds.

Jugs

 

[amcdonald]

Avoid the manboobs!!!!!
You should work out your chest first and your triceps last, this way you will get a more effective workout.
You should definitely go buy a set of weights or an adjustable set (my preference) so you can push yourself.
Weight training is good for you, but it won't kill the man boobs... it'll just make them bigger until you lose weight.
Don't just lift weights until you are exhausted, look into weight training online or go read a book at barnes&noble.
A general rule is don't do more than 3 sets.
also... you don't necessarily have to eat less often, just eat smaller amounts when you eat, like half.. It will suck at first but your body adapts. (like any diet). estimate calories. drink diet soda.
Combining better eating habits with good cardiovascular excerise is what you need.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
If you're not willing to work hard, you won't gain anything.. or lose it in this case.

I'm going to have to disagree on that one. I haven't worked out in since high school (4 years ago) and even then, not much at all and my weight has stayed pretty constant.

filmmaker, I'll give that a shot next time.

 

[fyleow]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX

Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
If you're not willing to work hard, you won't gain anything.. or lose it in this case.

I'm going to have to disagree on that one. I haven't worked out in since high school (4 years ago) and even then, not much at all and my weight has stayed pretty constant.

filmmaker, I'll give that a shot next time.

It doesn't matter if your weight has stayed consistent, it matters what makes up that weight. If you didn't have man boobies before but have them now and you weighed the same it probably means that you had more muscle mass and it's just gone now.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
As for biking, 1 miles isn't much. You need to do more like 5 miles at least. I walk over 4 miles everyday on my treadmill and I weight 330lbs. If I can walk that... you can bike it.

It doesn't seem like much but its one of those magnetic deals that control the resistance...and I have the resistance all the way up so after I'm done I'm pretty tired.

Should I ease up a bit on the resistance of the cycle and do more?

I also tried jogging this morning, only made it about a 1/2 mile before basically collapsing. To put it in perspective I was a very active tennis player in high school, and feel pretty bad about letting myself go. I'd love to play tennis somemore to use that as one of my methods of getting back in shape but I don't have a partner to play with.

 

[fyleow]

Originally posted by: Graphicd00d
Try this program.

Have you personally tried that? It doesn't seem like a good book for a beginner to me. I think Body for Life is the one that gets recommended the most for people getting into weight training.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: fyleow
It doesn't matter if your weight has stayed consistent, it matters what makes up that weight. If you didn't have man boobies before but have them now and you weighed the same it probably means that you had more muscle mass and it's just gone now.

I guess I should have worded that differently then. I've had the beginning of man boob for a while. I'm not just now getting them.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: fyleow
You don't have to go to they gym in order to get fit, just get a good set of dumbells and you're set.

If you're serious about getting in shape you need to workout 7 days a week, do cardio every other day and weights the rest of the time.

BTW the exercise you are doing is called the military and it works shoulders primarily.

Take filmmaker's advice on crunches, just lift your upper body about 3 inches of the ground and hold for a few seconds and go back down again.

I don't know if I can do that yet. I want to work up to doing more. I'm usually pretty sore after those 1 or 2 days a week.

As per the cardio and the weights...cardio would be what? jogging, biking, and swimming? anything else? crunches and pushups included in that as well?

 

[fyleow]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX

Originally posted by: Jugernot
As for biking, 1 miles isn't much. You need to do more like 5 miles at least. I walk over 4 miles everyday on my treadmill and I weight 330lbs. If I can walk that... you can bike it.

It doesn't seem like much but its one of those magnetic deals that control the resistance...and I have the resistance all the way up so after I'm done I'm pretty tired.

Should I ease up a bit on the resistance of the cycle and do more?

I also tried jogging this morning, only made it about a 1/2 mile before basically collapsing. To put it in perspective I was a very active tennis player in high school, and feel pretty bad about letting myself go. I'd love to play tennis somemore to use that as one of my methods of getting back in shape but I don't have a partner to play with.

I would suggest you just ease up and cycle more. If you're interested in jogging try the cool running program, it will help you build up your endurance slowly. Just trying to jog is a bad idea since your body isn't used to it yet. Also try to find trails to jog at, running on concrete sucks.

Whatever you choose you should definately do more cardio than a mile, I personally jog about 12 miles per week but I am hoping to increase it to about 25 eventually.

 

[CPA]

Don't just eat less, eat right.

You also need to set some realistic goals: short term, medium term and long term. And associate a reward with each goal.

And you MUST do ab work outs if you want to help your back. Abs help stabalize the back and strong abs will help take away some of that pain. Believe me, I have had L5 problems for 14 years and whenever I started skipping my abs over an extended period of time, my back suffers.

The rest has pretty much been summed up my other posts in this thread.

 

[Spac3d]

$10 says his eating habits suck.

If you want to lose the weight, you have to fix your diet. Doing aerobic exercises will help you lose weight too.

 

[fyleow]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX

Originally posted by: fyleow
You don't have to go to they gym in order to get fit, just get a good set of dumbells and you're set.

If you're serious about getting in shape you need to workout 7 days a week, do cardio every other day and weights the rest of the time.

BTW the exercise you are doing is called the military and it works shoulders primarily.

Take filmmaker's advice on crunches, just lift your upper body about 3 inches of the ground and hold for a few seconds and go back down again.

I don't know if I can do that yet. I want to work up to doing more. I'm usually pretty sore after those 1 or 2 days a week.

As per the cardio and the weights...cardio would be what? jogging, biking, and swimming? anything else? crunches and pushups included in that as well?

Cardio would be jogging, biking, and swimming. Anything that gets your heart pumping.

Just start doing 7 days a week and you will get used to it, if you find that you are still really sore then try to get 3 different muscle groups going for more rest time. When I started doing weight training in highschool we had to do it everyday in class. I was really sore at first but later on I got used to it and was doing benchpress every single day.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

I was going to start that from couch potato to runner thing but I cut my toe this morning and didn't want to put a sock on it. So instead this is what I did...

July 11, 2003
Biked 2.5 miles.
Did 20 clockwork crunches (60 crunches)
Biked for 4.5 miles.
Did 20 pushups.
Did 2 sets of 10 curls, 2 sets of 15 military.
Did 6 clockwork crunches
Started feeling light headed so I stopped.


I think I'm going to keep a journal of what I did for the day, and I'm going to put into it what I should do the next day. Anything noticeable that I should change? I'm wondering why I started feeling light headed (still feel that way as I just finished). Maybe did too much?

 

[DaveCSparty]

check the forums at wannabebig.com

good luck

 

[Sealy]

I feel your pain, I really do! I had gained a good 60 pounds from about age 21-23. I'd always been slim and in shape so all this weight gain was new to me.

Basically what it was, was my diet and a bad relationship! Too many fast food drive thru's, not enough physical exercise, and a low self esteem...recipe for disaster!

You most certainly don't have to join a gym to lose the weight...I lost 40 of the 60 lbs. before I went to a gym and started using weights.

The key is start with your diet. I started having salads with my burger instead of fries and gravy! Then I started to give myself "healthy" snacks in between meals, like yoghurt and fruit, or cottage cheese and fruit. I also started eating breakfast! Granola and yoghurt, snack, and then lunch. Which could be small portions of pasta or a sandwich or rice and chicken. Then another snack and then the biggest thing was not making dinner my MAIN meal. I just had chicken breast, or fish or beef, and a salad. I made sure that I went to bed hungry.(Although that was hard to do, I keep telling myself that the hungry feeling is fat being burned away while I sleep!)

I also started walking the 20 mins. to work instead of driving the 5! and then I'd go for a run for as long as I could handle it and then continue to walk for 15 more minutes. Oh and a good thing to remember....a 45 min. fast paced walk is the equivilant to a 20 min. run!

Sit ups will not get rid of your gut btw, only diet and exercise will do that. I'm not saying don't do crunches, but you'll be strengthing the muscles that are underneath your fat, turning ugly fat into ugly muscle.

Your main concern should be your diet and cardiovascular activity. Do the weights but don't make that your main focus right now. When you lose some of the fat...then you can focus more on muscle toning.

I hope this helps...I'm not a professional, but this is what worked for me when I lost my 60 pounds. And I'm a girl so it's a lot harder for me to lose fat than it is for guys!

Good luck and keep us posted with your progress!

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Thanks for your response. Good job btw.

As for breakfast I usually don't eat it. If I do its cereal. I guess I'll try fruit now.

I certainly know what you're talking about with the fast food places and all you can eat places. I LOVE chinese food. I'm going to have a hard time giving that one up.

I used to eat tuna all the time. I'm not sure why I stopped. Time to check the pantry.

I took some before pictures last night btw...plan to post some after pictures in a while (source of motivation along with the journal I'm keeping).

I'm also wanting to get the fiance in shape as well as she has put on some pounds in the almost 3 years we've been together.

 

[Night201]

Originally posted by: amcdonald
Avoid the manboobs!!!!! You should work out your chest first and your triceps last, this way you will get a more effective workout. You should definitely go buy a set of weights or an adjustable set (my preference) so you can push yourself. Weight training is good for you, but it won't kill the man boobs... it'll just make them bigger until you lose weight. Don't just lift weights until you are exhausted, look into weight training online or go read a book at barnes&noble. A general rule is don't do more than 3 sets. also... you don't necessarily have to eat less often, just eat smaller amounts when you eat, like half.. It will suck at first but your body adapts. (like any diet). estimate calories. drink diet soda. Combining better eating habits with good cardiovascular excerise is what you need.

Don't drink soda at all.

 

[SP33Demon]

Right now, strength training will not help you lose your fat. You need to do cardio, every other day. In between days is when you want to do your weights. If you have only a couple days free a week and can't stick to this schedule, then do cardio in the morning (1/2 to 1 hour after eating breakfast) and do strength training at night, or vice versa. The reason you're getting light headed is because you're overtraining, your blood sugar levels are getting excessively low from doing too much at once (or you're dyhydrated, or both).

If you can't even jog b/c your back/other body part hurts, then walk for a half hour and do another 30-60 minutes on the bike. When you do the bike, push hard, don't lollipop it...

If you miss or need to sacrifice a day, pick strength not cardio. You need cardio now, and in a hurry!

Other tips: Try to drink a gallon of water of day. It will help you lose weight as well. Try to eat 5-6 small meals a day instead of 3.

Diet: Try and eat chicken/tuna/protein shakes more. Avoid the junk foods at all possible costs, remember, everytime you eat that french fry you're that much closer to man t**s.
Eat more fiber too, it will definitely help you lose weight as well. Cereals that are good would be GrapeNuts, Shredded Frosted Wheat, Total, or any raisin bran. Try and eat salads as well, and pasta isn't bad if you eat it after your workouts (within 3 hours since your blood sugar levels are low it won't be stored as fat). If you have to eat pasta at any other time, don't overeat.

Feel free to IM me w/ questions man. -Rob

 

[Sealy]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
Thanks for your response. Good job btw.

As for breakfast I usually don't eat it. If I do its cereal. I guess I'll try fruit now.

I certainly know what you're talking about with the fast food places and all you can eat places. I LOVE chinese food. I'm going to have a hard time giving that one up.

I used to eat tuna all the time. I'm not sure why I stopped. Time to check the pantry.

I took some before pictures last night btw...plan to post some after pictures in a while (source of motivation along with the journal I'm keeping).

I'm also wanting to get the fiance in shape as well as she has put on some pounds in the almost 3 years we've been together.

You know....don't give up the foods you like completely, it'll drive you insane! I give myself a cheat day! Mine is Sunday as that's our family day. We go to DeDutch ( Best fattening breakfast you'll ever have in your life!) Then for lunch and dinner we do fast food! Or order in pizza, whatever our little hearts desire. You could have chinese food that day. One day is not going to wreck what you've done all week, and it'll make being good during the week so much easier, cause you'll be looking forward to that cheat day all week!