Exercise/Weight Loss

[petergibbons]

Anyone have any sure-fire ways for me to drop about 30 lbs. (besides a hunger strike)? I have been playing basketball for 2 hrs at a time 2 days a week for about 2 months now and have only lost about 5 lbs. It's not going as fast as I would like it to. I also hit the stationary bike and eliptical jogger. Thanks!

 

[Road Guy]

Although its slowely coming back, about 3 years ago I hit about 250 (I am 6' 2") I did cut down to around 220 over 6 months by training for and running a marathon. I was running around 20-30 miles per week, but I didnt watch my calories (food) at all, i still ate whatever I wanted, and some bad stuff as well. I think If I would have listened to the wife (she's a dietician) and also watched what i ate I could have gotten down to around 205/210..

If you do drop a pant size throw the old size away, that way when your new pants feel snug, you can step up your excerise instead of putting the larger size back on.

Here is what my wife (Registered Dietician in 4 states) recommends..

1. Write down every thing you eat for 2 weeks. Look online and estimate the # of calories. Keep this journal on going even after the 2 weeks. I am doing this now and see that it could really help.

2. Figure out the # of calories you need to sustain your current weight, then figure out the # you need for your -30 weight.

3. Looking at #1 compare your total # of calories a day in your food journal to your ideal body weight numbers, and then treat your food journal like a budget and strike out what makes you over eat.

4. If you excersice, estimate the # of calories burned and add that to your total daily calories.

When she is in a bitchy mood, she tells people to stop eating fast food (All fast food) cut out all soda's, and get some god **** excercise (okay thats what she tells me but you get the drift )

 

[TouchDown]

I can't say that I've been much more successful.

I wanted to drop 30 lbs, started with cardio, same as you. I ended up losing 22 lbs during one stretch, by combining the following:

1. Started drinking diet soda (as much soda as I drank, this dropped calorie intake by about 600 cal's per day).

2. I started bringing my own lunch to work to somewhat control my diet. Basically sandwitch and salad. I bring 2 snacks with me (typically one a vegetable - carrots, the other a fruit - apple). In other words, I began to control my caloric intake and start to reduce calories and eliminate fatty high calorie/carb foods (fries and other crap they have here at work).

3. For cardio to start, I was riding my bike every day for about 45 minutes (on the trail behind my house, that's about 12 miles total trip)

3b. when weather changed in fall and it started raining, my wife and I joined a gym and I ride stationary bike, or ellipitical. I like the elliptical more because of using my upper body.

A trick I read in some magazines is that if you do cardio, monitor your heartrate close, and alternate resistance. Heavy work (target heart rate), then back off and let it drop 20bpm, and back up again. They say that alternating heart rates like this will target burning fat more??? Can't remember why. That's why I think I had so much success with riding the bike outdoors, hills, downslopes, I would work and rest, work and rest...

Another sure fire way to burn more calories is to begin weight lifting. Muscle mass burns calories. You may add weight with building muscle, but it's weight that is desireable. So, don't just trust the scale, start watching your waist line.

The 22 lbs, leveled off and over the holiday, I ate too much, and stopped going to the gym as much (I had been doing cardio 3 X per week and weights 3 x per week), lately, I've only been doing cardio about 2X per week and I put back on 10 lbs fast.

It's a battle between how much calories you take in vs. burn. Your bodies metabolism can change over time and you burn less calories, but adding muscle mass will help increase that. Only issue with muscle mass is you can lose it if you don't keep working it.

Some of the other guys on the board are much better at talking to this. I can only speak from my experience from May until now. PS - you don't want the weight to come off really fast. I've heard that max is about 10 lbs. a month.

Good luck!

 

[Kipper]

I lost 30 lbs. over a 6 month duration. I did not eat until I actually felt hunger pains. I ate what I normally would eat, but I cut the portions in half. Even burgers.

:watch:

Even cutting the meal in half I ate until I was full. This is the most difficult part. Before if there was food in front of me I would eat. The key to this is to eat slower, talk more, and take a drink after each bite.

So the premise is simple eat what you want. But only eat when you are really hungry and quit when you are full.

You may eat more than three meals a day this way, but it is your body that is telling you when you need fuel.

I did not exercise any other than working with boys soccer two days a week.

If I would have built some muscle mass and increased my metabolism I would have done better.

:thumbsup:

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

One of the easiest thing to do is just cut out junk calories. Soda is tooth rotting garbage with no nutritional value. If you drink 2 cans a day, which isn't a lot for some, that's 300 calories right there. Same goes for dessert. There's just no need to have it.

Bring your lunch. I do this 4 days a week. I do like to go out once a week just for variety or to mingle with coworkers. A sandwich, piece of fruit, and bottle of water is healthier than almost anything you'll get out. And it's MUCH cheaper to boot.

Get disciplined about exercise. I try do 5 days a week. I look at it as something that has to get done, like going to work or cleaning the house, rather than a luxury if I have time. You'd be surprised how quick it becomes second nature.

 

[Road Guy]

yeah if your single / or have no kids there's not much of an excuse not to excerise, but once you get a few rugrats running around, it becomes a serious scheduling issue. especially if the spouse is also trying to squeeze in some exercise.

last night after we got the kids to sleep, she went to run, then I went when she got back, by the time I got back, showered, it was 11:30 and thanks to the PT I was wide awake and couldnt fall asleep until around 12:30....

I dont want to put the $$ into buying a good treadmill but we have been looking at getting a decent elliptical machine for the basement, so we could at least do something when the kids are home (normally my wife works weekends so its almost impossible to get any PT in during the weekend)

 

[GCracker]

I have a Chuck Norris Total Gym in my room that scares weight away!!

Seriously, I use the total gym for about 30 minutes in the morning and eat reasonable meals. NO soda, lot's of water and green tea, and a cup of coffee. Seems to work.

Beer is my weakness.

 

[mizzoueng]

We just got a treadmill from Sears. Not the most expensive one on the market but it'll hold my 260 frame easily.

Lift weight, do cardio 2 times a week. Do abs, this helps more than you think. Watch what you eat. Don't starve yourself, you can go on a 2000 cal diet and if you are still starving, eat celery or carrots or some other fruit or veggie.

Cut out coffee. But I have read that if you drink 1 cup, thats 1 measuring cup, of black coffee, no sugar, flavoring, creamer, etc, before you workout that it actually jump starts to metabolic process and give you a small energy boost to get going.

Don't buy those diet pills, 99.9% of them are crap. I've tried a bunch of them for reviews online. The only one I saw benefits from was a ECA stack. But even then that is not reccommended for beginners or even average lifters/ workaholics. Trust me, its not fun.

If you have limited time, I reccommend you do cardio for 30-45 minutes, maybe 1 hour 2-3 times a week. For lifting, lift 2-3 times a week. If you can get your hands on some free weights, a bar, and a good rubber mat, do olympic lifts. Snatch and clean & press. These end up being nearly complete body workouts and will help you gain flexibility and stamina. Which helps in other parts of your life

But if you have time to kill and want a structured workout to help you say lose 30 pounds of fat and turn it into 15 pounds of muscle, then go to a board like bodybuildingforyou.com and ask around there for workouts. You can use the search feature and probably find it without even asking. People are on there all the time uploading workout schedules and making public posts about what their workouts are doing for them.

'.02'

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Beer is my weakness.

Mine too.

 

[Road Guy]

also eat breakfeast

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I'm definitely a breakfast guy. We've always got lots of leftovers around, which make for a kickass start to the day.

 

[Wolverine]

Lots of good advice here already but can't let the topic pass without getting my '.02' in, having once been a FatBastard ("ooh, I'm gonna eat me a baby!")

Weight loss is a complex mathematical algorithm - burn more calories than you consume. Burn more, consume less, or do both. Duh. It's just too simple for most people to understand.

My personal favorite tips to add are pretty simple too:

>Get your heart rate up - exercise is good but exercise that gets your heart rate jamming is better. IMHO(nonPE), road running is the fastest, best way. Spinning is good too. Add that 2X to the B-ball and I think you are there.

>Drink lots of water - water cools the body which forces you to burn more calories - Ok, I made that up, but drinking lots of water always works for me.

>Eat vegetables, particularly vegetable plates at lunch (that is unless your cafeteria is a grease trap like ours where a four-veg plate consists of grease, butter, sugar, and green food coloring.)

Beer is also my weakness and I'm up about ten pounds heading into winter. Need to review and follow my own advice.

 

[petergibbons]

Spinning is good too. Add that 2X to the B-ball and I think you are there.

What is spinning?

 

[MetroRAFB]

Spinning is good too.


water cools the body which forces you to burn more calories - Ok, I made that up, but drinking lots of water always works for me.

Forgive me for asking, but what the hell is spinning? It sounds like a Wilt Chamberlain reference to me but apparently it's not as much fun as all that.

In theory, your body will burn more calories if you just drink gallons and gallons of freezing cold water. Takes calories just to bring that stuff up to your body temp after you swallow it doesn't it?

 

[Road Guy]

spinning = bike classes, I think there pretty intense, never did one though, I just personally cant stand bikes..

 

[petergibbons]

I don't care a lot for stationary bikes either. Riding outside during the good weather months would be fun though. I've noticed that the eliptical jogger burns the most calories compared to the treadmill, stairclimber, and bike in the same amount of time for me.

 

[DVINNY]

This seems to be a popular topic, I'm going to paste what I put in that other thread today.

FOR AN AVERAGE MALE:

If you make sure that you eat no more than 400 calories per sitting, and have at least 2 hrs between meals, you can lose an amazing amount of weight with minimal cardio.

If you eat 400 calories per meal at 6:00 am, 9, noon, 3, and 6:00 pm. That's 5 meals at 3 hrs apart for a total of 2,000 calories. Do 30-40 minutes of cardio (walk, elliptical, etc.) at least 3-4 times a week, and you WILL burn off fat.

It is important to not miss any of the 5 meals, and of course the healthier and cleaner the 400 calories are the faster you'll lose the weight, but I guarantee if your 400 calories was from ANY type of food, you'll still lose the weight.

I am usually 250 lbs. in the offseason, and compete in bodybuilding at 198 lbs. and in powerlifting at 220 lbs. I've taken 50 lbs. off on 7 different occasions now. It's not that hard, it's just a matter of doing it.

 

[DVINNY]

To give you a break down on the 400 calorie meal.

PROTEIN is found in meats and fish, and is easiest to estimate that you will get 5 grams of protein per ounce. There are 4 calories per gram of protein, so one chicken breast averages 5 ounces. That is 5 oz. times 5 grams of protein per oz. = 25 grams of protein, times 4 calories per grams is 100 calories from the chicken breast.

an 8 oz. steak (average size) would give 40 grams of protein, and 160 calories.

Then, if you eat clean carbs with that, you can easily make up your 400 calories. BUT carbs are easy to overeat. A cup of brown rice to go with that chicken or steak would be 45 grams of carbs, at 4 calories per gram, you now have 180 calories to add in. That meal might have 5 grams of fat, at 9 calories per gram would add another 45 calories = a total of 385 calories.

 

[DVINNY]

Carbs:

cup (cooked) of brown rice = 45 gm carbs, 180 calories

A Sweet potato = 40g carbs, 160 calories

2 pieces wheat toast = 25g carbs, 100 calories

1/2 cup of oats = 50g carbs, 200 calories

Protein:

8 oz. Steak = 40 grams, 200 calories

8 oz. Chicken = 40 grams, 200 calories

8 oz. Fish = 40 grams, 200 calories

1 whole egg = 6g fat, 6g protein, 80 calories

1 egg white = 4g protein, 25 calories

 

[MetroRAFB]

1 whole egg = 6g fat, 6g protein, 80 calories

What if I discard the shell?

:jk: