new guy here

S

stankfoot

New member
25 years old male
5'9
roughly 210 lbs
No medical problems
dont know bf % but its too much
week 4 of dieting and exercise

problem: lost maybe 5 lbs in 4 weeks, always hungry even after a meal my stomach growls for more, not enough energy sometimes i struggle to do what i did the day before.

Day to day: wake up, eat 3 eggs, jog/walk, then lift weights and use exercise bike for couple hours, then eat, then back to weights and exercise bike for few hours, then eat, then go for 3 mile hike with 20 lb backpack, then eat and sleep. i dont work and school dont start for another 2 months so im free to do as i please basically.

food: only drink water. cut my intake by more than half because it was mostly boredom eating before starting. now its mostly protein. Lots of tuna with pickles and mayo, spoonfuls of peanut butter, chicken, roast, lots of eggs, and fruits. today i ate 2 cans of vegetables to end my day which i will start doing from now on. no sweets, sodas, just cut bread out this week, basically if it isnt healthy and i know it i wont touch it. except pizza. ive eaten that a few times but with limited amount. and a couple of greasy burgers here and there on "cheat day" which ill be cutting out for now on because i need to get serious about this. other than that im eating healthier.

exercise: my routine will sound crazy because im trying to enlist into military and have to not only lose weight but also build muscle while working on duration. jog/walk 2 miles to start day and end day with 3 mile hike with 20 lb backpack. when lifting weights my routine is done in cycles with rests between cycles. i bench until failure, arm curl until failure, farmers lift until failure then exercise bike until failure then start over only resting when needed after the exercise bike because i can do that the longest before failure. and ill do this for hours taking anywhere from 1 minute to 30 min rests between cycles. when needed and during rests is when i eat which makes me wait at least 30 min before going after it again or ill sleep if ive really been pushing myself. take 1 day off per week.

sleep: i do everything naturally meaning no alarm clocks. sleep is out of whack because of my routine. sometimes ill sleep for 3 or 4 hours between cycles then workout for hours before sleeping again. Sometimes ill sleep 10 hours before working out again. as crazy as it is ive kind of found a routine, this week i started to naturally wake up around 1pm, running by 3pm and hiking around 9pm. before this week i dont really remember because it was just so chaotic i lost track of the days and time. once school starts ill be able to get on a great schedule, im really looking forward to it because i know thats when ill really start seeing a difference.

question: what am i doing wrong? looking into getting fat burner/energy boosting supplement for that extra push, any tips on supplements? what types of foods should i increase and when should i eat certain types of food (as in should i eat a bunch of protein morning and mid day then bunch of veggies and fruits at the end of day or vise versa)?

My solution: tighter schedule. wake up, eat and sleep at the same time everyday and not when i feel like it. start a diary to keep track of day to day life. eat more than im doing now.
 
Welcome to the forum. I will leave the expert advice to the experts. It sounds like you have the will & determination to get to where you want to be.
stankfoot said:
looking into getting fat burner/energy boosting supplement for that extra push, any tips on supplements?
Click to expand...
I do know that this, however, is not a good idea.
All the best with your goals!
 
thanks cate :) i see youve been a member for awhile now, why do you think that would be a bad idea? what supplements would you recommend? are any supplements "good"
 
I would not recommend a "fat burner/energy boosting supplement". A simple Google search of side effects would explain in great detail why I think they are unhealthy. I think you will find that most of us here are more in favour of healthy ways to become fit & healthy & have long-term, sustainable goals, rather than risking our health, with so-called short-term "fixes". If your diet is inadequate then vitamin supplements can replace the things that you are missing out on. I don't recommend taking any supplements, as a healthy diet should cover what your body needs. I do take some supplements- rose hip capsules, calcium/magnesium and flaxseed oil. I have certain health issues that seem to have been helped by these supplements, but it has been a lot of trial & error & lots of research.
 
I have to head into the gym shortly, however I will take a closer look at your post as soon as I have time, but supplements are not a good idea unless you have an actual deficiency in your diet.
 
Thanks for the heads up on supplements!! Looks like ill have to do this the old fashion way and grind it out. Still idk what else to do to shed the weight. maybe take more food in? Double my portions? Or could it be because not enogh greens in my diet. Ive heard the saying that you have to eat more to lose weight but it just sounds wrong. Or maybe i should throw some ab workouts into the cycle. I cant do planks because the weight but sit ups are no problem. Or spend more time walking/jogging in this summer heat sweating it out.
 
Hi stankfoot and welcome
You're in the right place. Good work so far and you're clearly in the right mindset which is great. I think you need a bit of structure and also a bit of routine and you'll see fast changes. I'm sure others will have advice but I'll weigh in first, others may not agree (particularly with what I say about calories!). I like the 'low sugar' route to shedding fat because I think it's the simplest and I've seen the fastest results with this route, personally and with clients. what this basically means is that the carbs you get on while losing fat are from vegetables and salad, i.e. Ditch the bread, fruit etc. You also didn't mention much in the way of healthy fats. Easiest way to get these is through extra virgin olive oil on salads and veg, nuts to snack on and eggs you've already mentioned. So far as protein is concerned you've already mentioned many of my 'go to' protein sources but basically tuna, turkey, chicken and steak (in that order) is what I tend to favour. So overall my advice would be to start out the day with eggs (omelette etc), healthy fat snacks mid morning (nuts, seeds etc), portion of protein and complex carb (with healthy fats) for lunch (i.e. Tuna salad with olive oil etc), healthy fats afternoon snack, portion protein and complex carbs for dinner (e.g steak and veg). Lots of water all the time (which you're already doing). Now when it comes to calories I'd treat them as just a rough indicator, if you take the meals I've listed above and work out the calories then you'll see that if you're just getting good nutrition then you can eat a lot (volume) without consuming lots of calories. And this is where you need to start paying attention to your body. This type of type of nutrition should give you energy and you should be feeling good so if you're feeling full of energy, alert and not fatigued then you are getting enough nutrition. If not then you should increase the volume. As for cheat days, those are for when you're maintaining weight not shredding fat so lose them for the next couple of months buddy. If you fail here and there don't beat yourself up but don't plan them in!

So far as exercise is concerned. You're close to what you need to be doing too. If you're joining military then your loaded hikes are necessary but I'd suggest refining your strength training slightly. I'd suggest making the following the main elements of your strength regime: push ups, pull ups, squat, rows, military/overhead, deadlift. Big compound movements are the way to get overall strength gains and reduce chances of hurting yourself (given your level of activity), because they are primary movements and you can move the most weight with these exercises, I.e they are the big push and pull type movements your body was designed for. Again important that you have recovery time from strength training because muscles don't repair and grow in the gym, but rather when you're sleeping and resting, so I'd suggest full body strength training every other day OR upper body one day and lower body the next. Youre young so you should apart pretty quick and not need more than a couple of days rest between workouts. Plus if you're joining the military then you'll be glad you started doing push ups early on!

So far as mixing cardio and strength training in the same workout, if you can I'd try to split them so if your days are split, i.e. Morning cardio and afternoon strength or vice versa. You'll likely find that you improve on both by structuring them a bit better. Just on last touch on the nutrition side of things, nobody ever got fat by having a couple of extra tins of tuna per day so when you start out, start with big protein portions and adjust as you get used to it.

I did a long and slightly rambling post here in case you want to know a bit about me and what I've done.
https://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/my-transformation-pictures-story-and-tips.88117/

Happy to chime in with some more advice if you need any, I'm sure others will too. Good luck buddy!
 
Thanks middleageshred! :) i will definitely be changing my routine up after reading that! i didnt know there were such things as healthy fats? because i have so much of it already i figured my body would pull from that as needed but now that i think on it, it wouldnt be healthy fats its pulling. im glad to hear i can up my intake because i was really pushing myself harder than what i felt needed. i heard some people say that working out on an empty stomach will burn fat more so thats why i forced myself to do it that way. my only concern now is i cant afford to eat like this all the time so ill have to find a way to do it cheaper or find another route altogether.

when working out i chose to do it the way i did because im scared to mess up body by not being in the right position or posture. i tried doing planks and felt a pinch in the middle of my spine and when i did deadlifts the next day in that same spot on my spine i could feel pain. so i figured lets just focus on shedding the weight first before actually getting into the real strenght training. so i set up this schedule that would keep my heart pumping, keep me sweating and to keep burning calories while building my endurace up. when im hitting the weights im only using light weights so i can go longer and when i get tired ill decrease the weights so i can keep going. also could someone recommed more types of home workouts i could do for compound movements? right now all i have is a bench with a 10 pound bar and a few plates (1-25, 2-7.5 and 4-2.5) also 1-15 pound dumbell. it dont sound like much but after 200 or 300 reps i might as well be trying to lift a car! im thinking about waiting to apply for the military until after school which will be in about 8 or 9 months so that should be plenty of time to shed and get in really good shape, plus my school has a free gym for students with all types of machines. ive been eye balling the hand ball court a lot!!

so ill put this into effect starting today and keep yall up to date as to how its going. thanks for the help yall!!
 
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