Like she said, interval running and rosstraining website will keep you busy for a long time. And I agreed with her, try to find some time to at least eat your breakfast. I don't think you really have to eat 6 time a day, because in reality many of us can't do that. It all go with how you are planning you're week, and find some time to eat. I'm doing my degree at the university and i'm a teacher at the university at the same time, and I manage to find time for exercice and at least 4 meal/day. Good luck
Mafoota, one of our instructors (Carl Grant) does a fitness session on a Thursday night 8 -9pm at Risca Leisure centre, you will soon burn off the calories with him if its not too far to travel.
Just throwing something out there, but I have been trying to lose weight for around a year. I was trying to eat really healthy, so I was eating a lot of fruit and drinking juice instead of soft drink. I was exercising consistently, but wasn't moving the weight. Then I adjusted my diet and have cut out a lot of sugars (there is a lot of sugar in fruit and juice). Now I limit myself to two pieces of fruit and only drink water. Since then I have lost 7 kilos over 6 weeks. A good guide to the amount of sugar you should be getting is around 10% of you daily intake (or aroung 50g). This is all sugars that are naturally occuring in foods. You should not be eating anything thing with large amounts of processed sugars. If it has nutrition information make sure it is less then 10% of the serving. Other than that the only other tips I can give is keep the protein up, exercise well, and watch the types of fat you are eating. And Low Fat doesn't mean low calories, they often add loads of sugar to replace the fat, which in some cases can have more calories than the fat would have.
never skip breakfast. When you do that your body continues in a starvation mode, continuing to store fat instead of burning it. When you eat first thing in the morning it breaks the starvation mode your body is in and gets it back into burning fat for energy.
This thread is awesome - look at all these people contributing good information! Anyways, I'll try to fill in some holes later after I've read it all.
TBH at your weight anything you change will make a differance. I'd suggest Strength training combined with cardio. Go look in the weight training forum for advice on strength training. You should be lifting 3 times a week with a 3x5 program, make sure you do squats, deadlifts and Benchpress. For cardio I'd suggest not starting out with interval training as you wont be able to manage it. Start with 3 mile (or less if you cant) jogs. Once you feel fit start HIIT, which consists of finding a 100m strip then sprinting a 100m then walking 100m rinse and repeat for twenty minutes. Diet should just be vegetables, starchy carbs and protein. No fruit, no sugar, no saturated fats. I don't know if this will be helpful but my daily diet looks something like this Breakfast: 75g of oatmeal with 200g milk or Bacon and Egg sandwich, 1 glass of milk with 1 apple Snack: Ham sandwich or Corned beef sandwich Lunch: Ham sandwich or corned beef sandwich Snack: 150-200g of pasta with 1/2-1 tin of tuna with 2 boiled eggs, 3 chicken legs, 1 glass of milk, 1 bannana Dinner: Whatever there is. Snack: 4 chicken legs, 1 bannana, 1 peanut butter sandwich. BAre in mind I will normally eat more than that too. Oh and drink lots of water and sleep eighthours a night. Routine and self dicipline are the key to sucess. Track your progress too.
Cheers for that. I'm starting down a gym on wed or thurs and I'm going to hit the weights. Not so heavy that it kills me but heavy enough to let me know it's there. I really need to get on a squat machine anyway because I'm trying to deepen my horse stance which is a bit crap at the moment. I just physically can't make myself go any lower without some weight. One of my main reasons for wanting to lose weight is that my range of motion is restricted from 20 years of carting around too much weight, living at the top of a hill ( short calf muscles) and having some pretty hard manual jobs. My body just isn't able to get into some of the stances properly as there's either flab in the way or the structure of my muscles won't allow for it yet. Imagine a tight head prop doing ballet and that's kind of what I look like doing my form at the moment. So phase one is lose the weight, phase two, increase flexibility. You're all incredibly helpful.
That's a gainers diet. You are trying to feed muscle and gain size, correct? While it is always important to make sure your muscles have plenty of protein (all that chicken) the diet to drop body fat IS a bit different then the Gainers diet. Not saying you are giving bad advice by any means, I would just say that eating pattern is a bit down the road. Agree that any of the suggestions made in this thread will have a positive impact though!
You are entitled to your uninformed opinion, it does have a relatively high success rate compared to a lot of weight loss systems though. Do you have a rational logical critique or are you just post whoring?
ummm...I finally watched your links....I hate to tell you this....but that is NOTHING new! The way he presents it is...the jokes...the situations...but the information??? Nope. All old and proven techniques. Rule 1) EAT WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY.....in other words....eat small meals throughout the day....nothing new there. Rule 2) EAT WHAT YOU WANT......which he then goes on to explain that he means in moderation with: Rule 3) EAT CONCEISLY (sp? I don't have spell check on this comp and I can't spell) and: Rule 4) STOP EATING WHEN YOU ARE FULL....the last three things are the same thing!! Eat in moderation!!!! Nothing new!!! Also, these WILL work...to just lose weight...and he proves it. HOWEVER...want to get in shape? or are you in the 15% bodyfat range and you want to get down to the 9-10% range? Then nope. You have to be more aware of what you eat then. His program is designed and targeted towards VERY overweight people whose goals are to JUST lose some pounds. That's great! It will work! I hope everyone in the world eventually does this!!! But when they are ready to take the next step with a workout program, they will also have to take the next step with nuetritian. My point is that this is just another guy trying to get his slice of the fitness pie by repackaging the tried and true methods and selling them as his own. He puts his own little twists in here and there, but it's still the same information. Oh yeah, Topher...with my rephrasing of it...maybe you can see it for what it really is, not nonense. Just not anything new.
Damn I've come to this thread a bit late lol Just a couple of points. I'd say MucKSW's first post was superb advice and Frodocious description of the types of interval training that would suit you is spot on. Those types of workouts will melt the fat off you! Just be careful to warm up well first and cool down afterwards by skipping or similar. I've got dodgy knees and consequently don't run much, except for some sprint training. I think the alternitives you mention will be just as effective for cardio and fat burning. Intervals on the rowing machine are a great idea as well. Sometimes its hard to eat 5-6 meals, but you have to eat breakfast if you are serious about losing weight. If you don't eat till midmorning the body will be well into starvation mode and the calaries you then eat will be turned to fat far more. You need to keep your metabilism ticking over as much as possible with small regular meals. If you can't eat a cooked breakfast then a quick sandwich(wholemeal) and a banana will do the trick.
Good advice. Fruit juice is not so healthy: I limit myself to one glass per day max. Follow John Berardi's article and Custom Thingy's advice. Berardi says drink only no-calorie drinks (esp water, green tea) except for post workout recovery supplements like protein/yoghurt drinks etc. Incidentally, on Berardi's site there's another excellent article on post-workout recovery nutrition, for when you start down the gym. Protein also actually contains appetite inhibitors, so gram for gram, protein will satisfy you more than anything else. QFT Strength training alone should do it. Cardio is what? 300 calories per half hour? The right strength programme will speed up your metabolism and keep you burning more calories all day for two-three days. The numbers here are completely arbitrary. However the exercises suggestions are good: you want whole body lifts. He won't manage even light intervals but he'll be able to jog three miles? I say skip the jogging. The rules of adaptation (your body reacting to pressures put on it to conserve energy and preserve its mechanisms) mean that any attempts to lose weight with exercise like jogging soon peak. Again, weights work better. And as stated, that's gainer's diet. Mafoota, you can eat less each time and call it a meal. Again, it's back to Berardi! BTW: NOOOOoooooooooooooooOOOOOO!:woo: DO NOT get on 'the squat machine'. 1) Watch a squatter. The weights do not move in a straight line. The weights on a Smith Machine (I assume that's your 'squat' machine?) are forcing your body into an unnatural path, which is even worse for your body since you're using it to try and increase your flexibility. 2) Squat. No weights. Just try and get all the way down. Search for Dan John's squatting lecture vid on Google vids (it's a hour or so long: you need the first ten minutes), which will tell you how to do it properly. Search for 'Third World Squat' on T-nation which will tell you how to improve your flexibility by squatting. Search for Alwyn Cosgrove's workout on single-leg squats (Men's Health, T-nation, or his site) which will tell you how to safely improve your ROM, form and stabiliser muscles. Can't direct you to any of these I'm afraid due to work server filters blocking the evils of T-nation etc...! 3) I can lift more with a Smith Machine than without. But my small stabiliser muscles are not getting used (the ones that help you balance on the way up and down for example). They are not good. 4) DO NOT get on the squat machine! When you've tried some of the stuff on those sites, try just a bar (20kgs) and see how you go with it: free weights. Oh yeah, in case you forget: Just a banana and a protein drink/couple of eggs should do if nothing else.
Thanks, I know it is nothing new, I gave the OP some free resources on it. He packages it quite well with some NLP type stuff which gives some motivation and techniques for resisting falling back to and breaking your old bad habits etc. Our friend who started this thread is not AFAIK in the healthy/normal range below 15% body fat but like I used to be a bit over. At least that is what I got from his opening post. I am now at 13% body fat, but I started with the Paul McKenna stuff and then went into other things as I got fitter, I managed to lose weight and put on a lot of muscle mass over the time I have taken to do this (it's been years rather than months though). I appreciate the time you took to review/crit it constructively the same way I don't appreciate Topher just going "that's nonsense" not very constructive or polite in my opinion, but that's up to him Oh and I can't spell either, and we are not alone here. Oh and Mr P I know I am a bad person but I sometimes do deads and Hack Squats on the smith machine if there is nothing else free in the gym. Normal squats feel funny though, I would rather even do a leg press than use the smith machine for that.
Frodocious has basically got it covered here. I can lay down my own dietary advice for weight loss in a few short sentences. Eat every 2-4 hours. Eat a serving of lean protein with every meal. Eat 2-3 servings of fruits and vegetables with every meal. Eat some good fats with every meal. I prefer animal fats via dairy or meat. Consume carbs after every meal. I usually do a carb heavy drink after my workout then have a protein based meal. Additionally use a body mass index calculator to find out what your calorie needs are per day (X). Take that number (X), and subtract 500 (Y=X-500). Now take Y and divide it by 500 (Z=Y/500). Z is the number of meals you should eat every day (each meal should be 300-500 calories).
Just as an aside I thought I would mention that I thought the Paul Mckenna stuff was pretty decent and I think it covers a subject that is rarely covered in fitness and weight loss: the psychology of diet change. I think that is what stops many people from actually losing weight (I think that and ignorance are the two biggest factors).
adouglasmhor (is there a short name we can call you by? 'a' seems a little vague and possibly rude! ): I would only actually recommend Smith Machines for people with lifting experience to supplement their free weights routine. Yohan, Frodo etc, I would say that, again due to adaptation (which effects sets, reps and choice of exercise, not just weights moved) a properly periodized full-body routine with varying reps and non-complimentary exercises (ie supersets involving non-opposing and dissimilar muscle groups with a limited rest between the exercises in the superset itself) is better at losing fat, and for a beginner, will put on adequate muscle to impact on the metabolism, than a 5 x 5 routine or Axelator's 3 x 5.
Ok so I'll stick to the squat machine for just pure lifting. It's an inclined one and seems to isolate the thighs, calves and butt muscles. For stances I'll just stick with the actual stances and forms and just have some patience. Down the gym tommorrow so my replies may be a little bit mono-syllabic tommorrow Again thanks ever so much for the advice given here, it's been invaluable so far. I'm going to get my wife to take a photo tommorw so that in a few months I can look back and see the difference and even more so in 6 months to a year down the road.
YEs your right I am trying to gain some weight right now. LEt me clarify on the diet, you need less to burn more calories than you consume. I'm not that clued up on nutrition but I think if you take something similar to my diet and reduce the quantity so your eating maybe 1800 calories a day you will loose weight and improve your body compisition.
