Motivation Achieved Direction Needed

[Generic Integrity]

Hi everyone My name is Nathan,

I recently lost 18 lbs in 2 weeks just by getting control of my eating habits. With this big time weight loss I find myself very motivated to keep going. Im just confused as witch direction to be going in. Should i concentrate on a diet or just getting back into the gym. What will show me the best results as possible at this point.

I am 5' 9" 210lbs Male 24 and work on a computer all day. I have a lot of natural muscle as I am fairly active as far as sports and physical labour goes. However have always struggled with my waist. about 10 months ago i had a personal trainer assess me to being at 23%bf. I suspect thats a bit higher as I have been out of the gym for the last 6 months and the recent weight loss im guessing is a bit of muscle.

My goal is to loose some of my overall size as you can probably tell I'm "Big Boned" by nature. I dont want to loose all of it but I figure a good goal for myself is 185lbs and approx. 10 - 15% bf. Is this achievable and what direction should i start in?

Thank You for any help you can give

Nathan

 

[Generic Integrity]

Thank you StellarTiggy for your response. As far as training goes I'm self employed and can make time for almost any amount of training the only real thing I want to set as far as a training schedule goes is ruetine. Before I alwaysmade it to the gym when ever i could now i want to set a specific time to be there at ... I'm Just not sure as what time is best from all the reading I've been doing. My personal preference is in the A.M.
Foods I have no alleregies but I'm not sure on what all the technical talks about fats and omegas are (i'm reading up on it but still having trouble).
Also you hit the nail right on the head as far as hitting a platuea, I've been in fairly great shape before but have never been able to break the 200lb mark. Basically I want to tone up my body (especially my spare tire mid section) and maybe loose a little size in my upper body. So i would have to say thats a yes to just loosing fat.
As for what i think a cutting plan is i Have no idea, Ive always tried to incorporate a cardio section to my workouts but am not a huge fan of it. Mainly I'm conserned mostly about diet as thats always been my frustration, I'm just not educated enough on the topic to make myself dedicated to any one specific diet. I just find that one or 2 meals a day seem to shed pounds. This is wrong i know and thats why I'm here.

Thanks Again

 

[KIAN]

Your diet is important in the reduction of bodyfat but not to the point that you are starving yourself. You will want to meet your daily caloric needs for the level of activity you are involved with and then gradually reduce this caloric intake and/or increase the level of activity. You can use the calculators at the following link to find your target ranges:

NCSF Calculators

*use a METs value of 4.5

Next, spend a week writing down all the caloric, protein, carb, and fat values of everything you eat during your normal day. Don't alter your nutritional intake during this week as you want an honest representstion of what you are consuming. Use these values, at the end of the week, to compare to the values you calculated above. This will give you a starting point as to where you need to make changes.

one gram protein = 4 calories
one gram carbs = 4 calories
one gram fat = 9 calories

You will want to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories over the course of a week (3500 total calorie reduction) by reducing your carb and fat intake. Keep your weight reduction at 1-3 pounds per week. Your recent weight loss of 18 lbs. was unhealthy. Do not cut out carbs completely as you will need a source of energy for your workouts. Try to keep your fat intake low and minimise your intake of saturated fats. Avoid trans and hydrogenated fats completely.

As you are losing weight, try to eats carbs which are low glycemic. They will take longer to digest and leave you fuller. High glycemic foods are usually heavily processed, contain higher levels of sugar, and will leave you hungry.

Keep your protien intake at a level of one gram per pound of lean body mass. As you progress through your weight loss, you will need to increase this slightly and lift heavier if you wish to retain muscle mass.

Try not to get too bogged down in all the technical stuff when putting together a healthy nutritional routine for yourself. Just familiarise yourself with the basics and go from there.

As to your cardio, perform it first thing in the morning when you get up (30-60 minutes running and/or cycling) followed by a healthy breakfast.

_______________________

KP -- Fitness Basics

 

[Generic Integrity]

Hey Kian Thanks for all the info,
I have some newbie questions for you tho... When recording what im eating should that be right now with the 1 or 2 meals daily or should I have a diet set out before doing this?

2902 caloric intake daily is what those calculators said. so should i be aiming for that mark. or should i be aiming at 2400 daily?

and what are "carbs which are low glycemic" can you give me an example. also is their any alternative to fish for omega fats??

Thanks for all your help

 

[KIAN]

NP Nathan

Your best plan would be to eat as you normally did, even if it means that your weight will go up by one or two pounds during this week. So if you eat pizza for breakfast, washed down with two litres of Coke, then write it all down. Then at the end of the week you will make the necesary adjustments. If you base your results on just the two meals you are eating now, then you will have great difficulty setting up a viable and healthy eating schedule for yourself.

height 5'-9"
weight 210 lbs
age 24
RMR = 2073
Daily Caloric Need = 2695

If you meet your daily caloric needs of 2695 and exercise then you will slowly reduce bodyfat. If you alter your diet so that your caloric intake is less than 2695 and exercise as well then your bodyfat loss will be more significant. The point is not to starve your body but to make it look for alternative sources of energy ... namely fat. As your body breaks down carbohydrates into glycogen, it stores this in the liver and in muscle tissues throughout the body as a source of quick release energy. When the liver and tissues become saturated with glycogen, it stores the excess as fat. This is why you will want to pay close attention to the amounts and sources of carbs you are consuming while at the same time making sure that you are expending more energy through exercise than you are consuming via your foods. A reduction in 500 calories (3500 over the span of one week) will see a loss of one pound in bodyweight. Introduce exercise into the equation and the lose may be more. The reason I said 'may' is because people get so hung-up with what the scales are saying and there will come a point in your training when you will step onto the scales and it won't show any difference but you will definitely see a difference in your physique. The bodyfat will have been replaced with muscle mass.

So for your height, weight, sex and age ... the ideal target for you would be 2195 calories per day with cardio (30-60 minutes) in the morning and weights (timed to fit in with your schedule). Just ease yourself into all of this at it will be quite a shock to your system at first. In time though, you will be just like the rest of us.

Examples of low Glycemic foods ... well I can do better than that. Here is a complete database on the glycemic indexes of all foods so you can take your pick.

Glycemic Database

Sources other than fish for omega-3 are flaxseed oil, canola oil, pumpkin seeds and walnuts. I'm not too crazy on fish either.


_______________________

KP -- Fitness Basics

 

[KIAN]

The bodyfat will have been replaced with muscle mass.

Just wanted to make a correction on this point as I didn't want to leave you with the impression that you can bulk and cut at the same time as that is not possible. But as you increase your protein intake, later on, and begin lifting heavier, you will be able to retain and define the mass which you have.

_______________________

KP -- Fitness Basics

 

[Generic Integrity]

Thanks again kian all the info is overwhelming yet extremly appreciated, I will start my journal tomorrow.

One more question, what should i be looking at as far as workout is concerned ... should i be hitting the weights daily or every other day etc... and for how long?

 

[KIAN]

Overwhelming ? ... we have only just scratched the surface.

At first, don't be concerned with the amount of time you are spending working out. Learn how to use the various equipment and free-weights and concentrate on correct form and gradually work into a groove. Eventually you should be able to complete a solid routine in no more than one hour. It is not necessary to perform every exercise ever created but it is important to target each of the muscles of the various muscle groups to maintain symmetry in your development. Remember to warm up with light cardio. Also, don't worry about using the 10 lb. plates when everyone else is using the 50's. They were all just like you at one point and it is quality and not quantity which is important.

This is just an example of a possible workout routine for you but there are many variations. You just have to do what you are comfortable with but make sure you are not training the same muscle groups back to back.


Training Program First Month

Training split 1 on, 1 off

Day 1: Chest/shoulders/arms
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Back/legs/abs
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Chest/shoulders/arms
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Back/legs/abs
Day 8: Rest


Training Program Second Month

Training split 3 on, 1 off

Day 1: Chest/arms
Day 2: Legs/abs
Day 3: Back/shoulders
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Chest/arms
Day 6: Legs/abs
Day 7: Back/shoulders
Day 8: Rest

_______________________

KP -- Fitness Basics

 

[pintoca]

man, that is a lot of good info packed in a small number of posts. With this info you can now get started. Remember to keep reading here and in other sources, only by knowing what you are doing can you actually walk in the right direction.

Good luck

 

[cwc73]

Yum...pizza washed down with coke for brekkie. I used to do that all the time

I take this as an insult....I had a dominoz medium washed down with 2 glasses of coke!!!!! That is NOT bad for you!!!! hahahaha Ok I'm seriously just kidding. Please do not do this if you are serious about dieting. I loaded up on food today including junk food because I just maxed out yesterday and I wanted to be full of calories. I'm going to do cardio today to burn it off.

 

[cwc73]

Yeah right. Listen fatass, why don't you stop creating excuses for yourself, confessing online and then trying to cover it up with something else?

"I just wanted to be full of calories" Oh please, I've maxed out plenty of times and stayed fine without having to load. Not just load, but load on junk food?? wtf? now that's one hell of an excuse to cheat

hehehehe

Hey I could care less. I'm in college, I'm single, and it's summer. My roommate came back to visit because he went home. We ordered a pizza and a coke which is kind of how we chill a lot. It's a hell of a lot better than going out and gettin innebreiated (sp?). I don't put fat on too easily, and I burn it off extremely quickly with minimum cardio. If you can't have fun and enjoy life, why the hell are you working so hard for a great body? Enjoy life!!! Live it!!!! Don't take this post as trying to flame you or anything because that is not my intentions. I just want to let people know how I feel.
73

 

[KIAN]

When I said 'So if you eat pizza for breakfast, washed down with two litres of Coke, then write it all down.' ... I should have emphasised the word IF as Nathan (remember him ... the guy who started this thread) doesn't actually do that. I just used it as an extreme example as everyone knows that pizza for breakfast with 2 litres of Coke is not what you want when your goal is to improve your physique.

So everybody put the pins back in the grenades ... put the flame throwers down ... nothing to see here ... move along.

_____________________

KP -- Fitness Basics

 

[cwc73]

Yea, everything is all cool. I apologize for hijaking the thread and all. Yea, I definately don't condone eating the pizza and the coke, but it was basically a cheat day. I'm back on track now (for the most part). I am just not so strict as I should be, but I'm young, and I want to enjoy my college career plus I know I can get back to where I was in about 2-3 days of strict diet which I tend to do after a bad weekend.

To the thread starter, keep your goals in reach and "kill that shit!"

 

[pintoca]

pizza and coke are staple in any diet

















































of your average FAT-ASS-COUCH-POTATOE Joe.


(Hope Wodin sees this post )