Looking for help

H

hj53

New member
Hey all. Just registered and hope to get some advise. Hopefully I have posted this in the right spot.

Basically I need to lose weight and would like to gain a little muscle. I am a 32 y/o male. I am 5'9 1/2 and hovering between 211-216 lbs. I have a smaller frame. My goal is to get back down to 180-185.

Up until about 6 months ago I stayed fairly light but I guess my metabolism has suddenly slowed. I have always had a small tummy (hereditary) but over the last few months it has really grown. Practically all of my excess weight is in my belly.

For the last 3 and a half weeks I have been doing pretty well at getting some exercise and eating better. My routine is as follows:

After I wake up I take a vitamin C tablet, a good multi vitamin, eat a banana & drink bottle of water while I walk & stretch to my apartment complex's limited exercise room.

I rotate 3 weight lifting routines daily. I do 2 sets at max weight (usually 4-6 reps) and 2 sets of ab crunchers at a medium weight (20-30 reps).

After my sets I ride the bike for 20 minutes. I keep trying to increase my rpms and resistance of the bike.

After my bike ride I do 2 more sets of ab crunches and my weight lifting as above. I am really only worried about gaining upper body muscle. One day I do an inclined press. The next day I do an overhead press. And the next day I do arm curls and repeat.

I have been doing this exercise routine for a little over 3 weeks and have seen some modest weight loss. When I started I was right at 218 and now I go from 211-216. I do this 6 or 7 days a week. I have took a few Sundays off.

Other than adding a workout routine I have really started watching what I eat. With my schedule it is tough to eat great but I am doing much better than I have the last 20 years. After I have my banana in the morning I have a cup of honey nut cheerios with skim milk a few hours later. At lunch it really varies. Some days I will have a lean pocket. Some days I will fall back into old habits and have something like a steak fajita quesadilla (yum) and some days I will have a salad or sandwich. Supper is basically the same as lunch.

I have, for the most part, cut out any white breads, soda and sweet tea. Also, when I do fall back into my poor eating habits, I try to at least make it a little more healthy and less fattening.

What I am looking for is feedback (positive or negative) on how I could improve my exercising and diet. I am willing to change any thing within reason to help achieve my goals (lose about 30lbs and gain some upper body muscle).

Thanks in advance.
 
Stick to <1800 calories and >100g of protein. Ditch your program and get a functional strength training routine like Starting Strength. Do Cardio after weights or on off days.
 
What I would recommend is that your diet, more than your exercise program is essential to losing weight, particularly in the mid section. Your body has basic caloric needs that if not met your body begins to store what it can for later use. If you increase your calorie intake to at least meet your body's daily requirement, which you can determine quickly with the following formula:

Body Weight x 10
Take that amount and then multiply by 1.2
This is the base number of calories your body needs each day to perform the functions of life, breathing, walking, making hair grow, so on and so forth.

For about 4 or 5 weeks, I would recommend you get about half your calories from lean proteins (chicken, turkey, fish). You will likely need to supplement your diet with protein powder and/or protein bar to accommodate that change. About 30% of the rest of your calories should come from good, whole grain carbs.

After about 4 or 5 weeks, you will begin to see a change in your body composition. Also this will be a good time to change your percentages to about 40/40/20. Meaning 40% of your calories from both proteins and carbs and 20% from fats.

For fats, you want to avoid animal fats as much as possible, so fat free on all kinds of dairy, also watch things like mayo, you'll want mayo made with olive oil instead of the regular or even the light variety.

For cereals, Kashi has a ton of awesome cereals that are excellent for you as well. I particularly like the Go-Lean Crunch or the Island Vanilla cereals from them.

Your water intake should be about 1 oz of water for every 2 lbs of body weight daily.
 
What I would recommend is that your diet, more than your exercise program is essential to losing weight, particularly in the mid section.






Weight gain and loss is genetic. Your body puts it on in one order and removes it in the reverse order...So if you have always had belly fat, it is because it is likely one of the first places it went on. It will be one of the last to come off. (Just correcting a misconception)
 
Thanks a lot for the replies but I have a few questions.

Should I be aiming for <1800 calories or the 2500 (weight * 10 * 1.2)?

Can anyone suggest a good protein bar? I have looked around and a lot seem to be high in sugar and calories. Healthy and tasty would be awesome.

Are honey nut cheerios an ok breakfast or should I look for something healthier? Where do you buy the kashi cereal. I have never seen it in stores.
 
hj53 said:
Thanks a lot for the replies but I have a few questions.

Should I be aiming for <1800 calories or the 2500 (weight * 10 * 1.2)?

Can anyone suggest a good protein bar? I have looked around and a lot seem to be high in sugar and calories. Healthy and tasty would be awesome.

Are honey nut cheerios an ok breakfast or should I look for something healthier? Where do you buy the kashi cereal. I have never seen it in stores.
Click to expand...

It's not a good idea to regularly eat protein bars precisely because of all the crap in them (and not just the sugar and calories, but all the gigantic list of impossible to pronounce chemical ingredients). They're essentially candy bars with protein. And processed food in general is bad for you.

If you're looking for a quick protein food, why not eat canned tuna or greek yogourt? Or try buying whey protein powder and adding it to your water. You could also buy shrimp and boil them, very easy to make and healthy. If you want to take something with you, you can take a boiled egg or two.

There are many healthy alternatives that require no cooking or very little cooking.
 
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Hey and congratulations, it sounds like you are on the right path.

Here a few tips that I think you will find helpful when tyring to lose belly fat.

You might be eating some of these already, but try and eat a lest 2 or more of these foods at every meal: Legumes, green veg. nuts, oatmeal (only use the ones that have low sugar content), lean meats, fruit like berries (I like strawberries personally), and even grapes too.

Another thing is to make sure you are having 5 to 6 smaller meals per day because this will lower the risk of overeating when it time to eat again, and it helps to increase your metabolisim.

To your success
 
Hi there,

Seems like your weights session is mostly upper body. Do you hit your legs at all? If you are worried about gaining upper body mass, then start working your legs to balance things up. Also, nothing burns calories and triggers GH (muscular growth hormone) better than sets of squats. If your goal is to burn fat and lose weight, leg workouts are a must!

Also, how long have you been on the weights routine with your 4-6 rep sets? We need to change up our routine every four weeks so our bodies will not have a chance to adapt.

Stay away from the arm curls and do parallel bar dips instead. Stick with compound or multiple joint exercises instead of isolation exercises to fully optimise your caloric expenditure and make the most out of your workout time.

All the best!
 
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