Weight loss/exercise programme suggestions?

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Pompeydave

New member
Afternoon all, I'm looking to lose a fair amount of weight and get fitter at the same time. I'm 44, 5' 11" tall, weigh 16 stone 7 pounds and my frame is probably best described as 'medium'.

What I'm trying to achieve is a stable weight of around 11 to 11 1/2 stones. My legs, arms and shoulders are pretty good, but it's the usual story of all the bits in the middle that have gone south I'm afraid!

I deliver food cages to convenience stores for a living which involves driving to the store, unloading about 70 heavy cages a day, and loading the empty ones before returning to the depot. I'm burning a limited amount of calories but don't have much cardio-vascular activity.

I'm buying a racing bike and I'm joining a gym that's about a mile and a half away. What I want to achieve is the 11 odd stone weight, as flat a stomach as possible and conversion of man boobs to at least some chest muscle.

I'm mainly looking at cycling and swimming at the gym with a little weight work as well, and I'm going to try to go every other day.

What I really need is some idea what sort of daily calorie intake I should be aiming for, and how much cycling/swimming/weights exercise I need to do in each session to make a difference and achieve the outlined aims?

I don't have any medical conditions, so I can go for it to a degree. Any idea's please? Thanks in advance.......
 
Great forum, thanks for all the suggestions......
 
Hm ... I'm not sure why your post got overlooked. One thing about this forum is that the "unread posts" tends to reset when you hit refresh ... so sometimes new posts get lost. Also the volume on the board is pretty high, so sometimes things get missed. I know I check the board here 5 or 6 times a day and even so, I never saw this post originally.

Don't go away or be angry .. just bump the thread if you don't get a response. :)

First of all, I'd say at your current weight, you could probably lose safely and healthily at around 2500 calories. That would be my suggestion for a starting point and then you can tweak from there. Make sure that your diet is balanced between complex carbs, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Most people use a 40/30/30 split or something in that range - meaning that 40% of their calories come from carbs (grains, veggies, fruits), 30% of their calories come from lean proteins, and 30% of their calories come from healthy fats (olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocado, etc.).

An easy way to track your diet is to sign up with one of the free sites like thedailyplate.com or fitday.com. You can enter what you eat and it'll help you track calories and percentages.

As for exercise, I'm not an expert in that field - there are people here far more knowledgeable than I, but I'd say that you should probably work on doing some kind of weight lifting or body resistance training 2x to 3x a week and some form of cardio 2x or 3x a week. When you lift weights or do body weight training you want to give your body at least 24 hours of recovery time between workouts - better even 48 hours. What I do is alternate days ... a weight program on Monday and Thursday, and running or HIIT cardio on the off days.

Right now I'm using this program:

And I'm also training to run a 5k using the Couch to 5K program:

If you follow the link to my journal in my signature, you'll see that I've just started posting my meals, calories, and workouts on a regular basis. Starting a journal here, if you're so inclined can keep you accountable and give people a place to follow along with you and offer suggestions and advice.

Good luck.
 
Hi there. I think it all boils down to your determination to lose all those excessive fats or extra pounds there in your belly if there is any lols.

As for me walking 10,000 steps daily what makes me keep going:) Then eating the right kind of food if there is such. Nonetheless, I must say I just avoid drinking sodas, cold drinks, beer, alcoholic beverages, and smoking. Through these I am losing quite few extra pounds as well with the aid of a *LINK REMOVED*also. Viola! I am in better shape now than ever.

As for yourself, you are the one who knows your body very well and what are your capable of.
 
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Morning all. An update from my original post 8 months ago.

At the outset I weighed 16 stone 7 pounds. What I was trying to achieve is a stable weight of around 11 to 11 1/2 stones. I was 44 back in July 09 so I'm now 45 and I am about 5' 11" with a medium frame.

Ok, so 8 months later I'm at 14 stone 8 pounds. I've revised my target weight upwards slightly to 12 stones, but I've hit a plateau and I think I might be eating too little for the exercise I'm doing and have gone into 'storage mode'.

The bike idea didn't happen, but I did join a gym and I go three times a week. I do an hour of vigorous cardio- 20 mins running with 5 x 1 minute sprints built in, 20 minutes crosstrainer and 20 minutes on the exercise bike.

I then do 12 reps 3 times on 6 different weight machines at what I'd call moderate settings. I then collapse in the jacuzzi for 20 minutes and go home!

At work I do supermarket deliveries, so I drive to the shop, push between 60-100 heavy cages every day into the shops and load all the empty cages on before driving back- damned hard work over rough ground into some shops and a long push down alleyways at some shops also.

I'm eating 5-6 pieces of fruit during the day and drinking unsweetened coffee/tea. I then eat a healthy meal at home at night of somewhere between 800-1000 calories. I'll have a snack most nights, a bag of snack-a-jacks, that sort of thing. So I'm probably eating somewhere between 1500-2000 calories a day on average.

On days off I'll have an additional meal during the day, usually 3 poached eggs on nimble toast and low fat spread. I drink about 20-25 units of alcohol a week.

As I say I've hit a plateau, and haven't been able to get below 14' 8" for the last four weeks, so can anyone look at the above and tell me where I'm going wrong please?
 
Don't think so. A unit of alcohol contains roughly 50 calories, therefore even at the upper 25 unit per week estimate it's still only 1250 calories a week.

Surely that won't prevent weight loss bearing in mind the large number of calories I'm burning at work and in the gym?
 
Pompeydave said:
Don't think so. A unit of alcohol contains roughly 50 calories, therefore even at the upper 25 unit per week estimate it's still only 1250 calories a week.

Surely that won't prevent weight loss bearing in mind the large number of calories I'm burning at work and in the gym?
Click to expand...

1250 calories is STILL an additional 1250 calories. It's empty calories that doesn't do anything for your body. Try cutting it out, you might see a nice change.

Oh and what Harold said.
 
Hi there, I am similar age to you, took up mountain biking about 17 years ago and am still cycling not fanatically but trying to on a regular basis.

What really works for me when the fat start piling up is doing regular rides and just watch my intake of refined foods and try and eat as natural as possible. The thing with mountain biking is that you have to cycle a certain distance and try and stay off road as much as possible which will give you a great workout but start slow and build up from there, increase the distance as you go.

Cycling in the gym does not work for me because you can stop at any time and you do not get uphills that you have to get over, with real cycling you have to get home and that will push you just a little more. My weight reduces quite quickly and I feel great, maybe a bit sore if I haven't been riding for a while but if you just persist things will start getting better. The idea is to do this regularly, you don't have to kill yourself take it slow and build up but do it frequently if you can afford the time.

Hope this helps.
 
I have to echo what's said before:

1) Sometimes plateaus just happen - although much longer than a month and it seems more like you're eating as many calories as you burn.
2) 1250 calories over a week can matter. Especially if everything else is near maintenance levels.

Additionally you say 'probably' between 1500 and 2000 calories - but humans are notoriously bad at estimating their calorie intake :D I mean... really really bad at it! So it might really be worth your time to spend a week or two actually weighing and logging everything you eat. Then you'll have a better idea how many calories you're actually getting, and how adjusting calories actually affects your system.

Also - what do you mean by units of alcohol? This really out of curiosity only :D - 1 glass of wine is 80-100 calories, are you measuring units as fluid ounces maybe?
 
What are you considering a "unit" of alcohol? Because different alcohols are measured in different amounts.

1 oz hard liquor = about 60-80 cals depending on the liquor
1 oz of an after-dinner type liquor = 120 cals depending on the sugar content
6 oz wine = 150 cals
12 oz beer = anywhere from 60-300 cals depending on the beer

Also ... alcohol is metabolized a bit differently than other calories. It also can effect testosterone levels, which can have negative results for muscle growth and protein absorption in men.
 
Hi,

A true weight loss program and diet, modifies your eating habits and types of food! You're not going on a starvation diet!! They don't work!! You'll be back where you were before you know it!! This approach helps you understand your eating habits and underlying reasons for your current weight.

Thanks.
 
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