New! Seeking Knowledge

[David536]

Ok,

So here is my story in a quick run. I used to weigh about 400 lbs. I'm freakin 24 years old and I got sick of it. I did the diet thing, started walking 6 miles per day, etc etc and I got down to 280 just by doing that. Today, I'm still 280. It took me about 8 months to get down to 280ish. I lost the weight pretty fast. I didn't do anything special just walked and ate a 2,000 calorie diet and managed my sodium to 2400 a day.

Now that I'm here at this weight, I'm extremely flabby. I still have a bunch of fat and thats generally where I'm going with this advice that I'm seeking. I'm 6 foot 3 and Ive read countless different regimes but they all seem so wonky. I know almost nothing about true weight training or anything but now that I'm at 280, I'd like to get down to 250 and start building muscle to get rid of this loose skin. I don't know anything about terminology or anything, lol. So, I'm trying to get a good regime going. I want to work out 4 to 5 days a week and have a regime that focuses on getting rid of my belly, my man boobs and get down to 250. 250 is my ideal weight since I'm so tall. I have elastic bands of all shapes and sizes and I'm willing to purchase equipment to help my cause.

The other thing is, is that I have a really horrid bad left knee that likes to dislocate constantly so walking 6 miles isn't what it used to be. Due to this incident I've turned to recumbent bikes and running in place as the incline/grade swap of the streets around my area is troublesome on my knees. Anyways! The stuff that I look at and research seems fine and I can do most, even squats but I don't know how many reps or even really what a rep entails, haha. Thanks for helping a noob but I need to get my body under control!

Also, diet advice would be good.. I'm still doing 2,000 calorie diet / 2400 sodium micro management and I'm constantly hungry still. Everything has a boat load of sodium so I always have calories left over. Hrmm thanks!

 

[Clinton]

Hi David,

Welcome to the forum. Congratulations on the progress that you have made. I reccomend you start by focusing on cardio exercises, but low impact(due to your knee) such cycling and swimming. Keep up the walking but consider upping the pace. also, what exactly does your diet consist of?

 

[David536]

I eat a lot of frozen dinners, haha. Smart ones, etc. When cooking does happen its usually just chicken, either grilled or cooked plainly, no salt etc then some veggies and usually a baked potato since they are high in cal, low sodium. Thats pretty much it, variances of that. So exercises such as what? I have been using the exercise elastic bands, doing chest work outs and stuff that ive seen on websites but I dont have a regime for it. I try to do like 20 band pushes then stop and move to a different band work out and after doing like 5 or so i start back at the original 20. It all feels so sporadic and unorganized, haha.

 

[PLB_old]

Hey David,

For a strength workout, especially when you are first starting, you should try to incorporate all of the major muscle groups and make sure you balance the opposing muscle groups (ie. if you do chest exercises, make sure you also do back exercises). Try to create a workout with 8-12 exercises and pick a resistance that causes that muscle group to be fairly fatigued somewhere between 12-15 reps, and work up to 2-3 sets of each exercise. And definitely continue to do cardio! You might be clear on this by now, but a rep is short for repetitions and is what we count as one complete movement of a particular exercise, say one arm curl. A set is a group of repetitions, say 12 arm curls in a row. So when I say, 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps, that means I want you to to 12-15 reps of an exercise, rest (30 sec is often enough for a beginner), then repeat that sequence 2-3 times. The muscle groups that you want to make sure to include, listed in opposing muscle groups are:

shoulders/lats
chest/mid-upper back
biceps/triceps
abs/low back
glutes
quadriceps/hamstrings
calves

Exercises usually incorporate other muscle groups, not just the 'target' muscle. Also you can incorporate other muscle groups later on, but this is a starting point to build up a base of strength.

There are tons of ideas out there, but you can find some simple exercises here:

Free Exercises, Exercise Instructions, Custom Workout, Personalized Workout, Ab Exercises, Abdominal Exercises, Training Programs

I hope that helps. If you have any more questions, ask away!