Hello everyone. This is a good, clean forum, with many who offer some decent advice. Something, that is hard to find.
I am male, 27 years old and am not overweight - I just have a "beer belly" and my chest has a bit of fat. The rest of my body (f legs, arms, etc) are strong and well-toned. My face also does not show traces of fat.
About a month ago, I decided to take things seriously and began to change my eating and exercising habits. I never ate "junk food" in a few years (I live in Chicago where people would rather eat at the local sushi or tapas restaurants, than the local McDonald's). I started a daily diary of what I ate and how much exercise I did on each day. I always exercised about 3 times a week, but I decided to shift this up to 5 times a week.
Over the past month, I started hitting the treadmill 5 times a week, for 45 minutes - 1 hour of cardio. About 3 or 4 times a week, I lift my 45 lbs. dumbells and do a lot of pushups (at home). I notice the biceps and triceps have increased in strength, and size, which is good. For pushups, I do about 10-15 reps and about 9 sets of them (sets with my arms close to one another, sets with my arms further apart, and sets with my legs on a chair).
Diet: I eat more regularly, but less portions. I drink a lot of water during the day. Whey protein in the morning with oatmeal, for breakfast, and chicken breast for lunch (as examples). Same with dinner. I am trying this carb-cycling, where one doesn't eat starchy carbs during the night for 3 days in a row, and on the 4th day, one eats starchy carbs at night.
I've also cut out alcohol - I used to drink a bit on the weekends (anywhere from 5-10 pints of beer) and now have cut myself down to 1 or 2 light beers (or whiskey) a week. I don't drink soda but if I do, it's always the diet versions. I don't eat white bread either, and stuff like french fries.
Though, even with the cardio, I don't see much change at all, within this past month. I don't weight myself as it can be misleading, when using weights. I bought a heart rate monitor and keep my heart rate up around 70-80% when on the treadmill. I do a combination of an incline on the treadmill, or just normal jogging. The treadmill machine states I burned about 400-650 calories after each session. I just started doing high interval, where I would run (about 6mph) for 5 minutes, then the next 5 minutes, I would incline the treadmill and slow down for a rest, and then increase back to 6 mph for the next 5 minutes, and so on. Is this good?
Am I supposed to notice a change in a month, or is that too short? Am I on the right track?
Just getting a bit frustrated.....
Thank you all for advice.
Ken
I am male, 27 years old and am not overweight - I just have a "beer belly" and my chest has a bit of fat. The rest of my body (f legs, arms, etc) are strong and well-toned. My face also does not show traces of fat.
About a month ago, I decided to take things seriously and began to change my eating and exercising habits. I never ate "junk food" in a few years (I live in Chicago where people would rather eat at the local sushi or tapas restaurants, than the local McDonald's). I started a daily diary of what I ate and how much exercise I did on each day. I always exercised about 3 times a week, but I decided to shift this up to 5 times a week.
Over the past month, I started hitting the treadmill 5 times a week, for 45 minutes - 1 hour of cardio. About 3 or 4 times a week, I lift my 45 lbs. dumbells and do a lot of pushups (at home). I notice the biceps and triceps have increased in strength, and size, which is good. For pushups, I do about 10-15 reps and about 9 sets of them (sets with my arms close to one another, sets with my arms further apart, and sets with my legs on a chair).
Diet: I eat more regularly, but less portions. I drink a lot of water during the day. Whey protein in the morning with oatmeal, for breakfast, and chicken breast for lunch (as examples). Same with dinner. I am trying this carb-cycling, where one doesn't eat starchy carbs during the night for 3 days in a row, and on the 4th day, one eats starchy carbs at night.
I've also cut out alcohol - I used to drink a bit on the weekends (anywhere from 5-10 pints of beer) and now have cut myself down to 1 or 2 light beers (or whiskey) a week. I don't drink soda but if I do, it's always the diet versions. I don't eat white bread either, and stuff like french fries.
Though, even with the cardio, I don't see much change at all, within this past month. I don't weight myself as it can be misleading, when using weights. I bought a heart rate monitor and keep my heart rate up around 70-80% when on the treadmill. I do a combination of an incline on the treadmill, or just normal jogging. The treadmill machine states I burned about 400-650 calories after each session. I just started doing high interval, where I would run (about 6mph) for 5 minutes, then the next 5 minutes, I would incline the treadmill and slow down for a rest, and then increase back to 6 mph for the next 5 minutes, and so on. Is this good?
Am I supposed to notice a change in a month, or is that too short? Am I on the right track?
Just getting a bit frustrated.....
Thank you all for advice.
Ken
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