Where to begin...
 

Lets see, I'm a 6'4 275 pound 22 year old male. Growing up I always played team sports (you name it I've probably tried it) I went to a college that was out of state and my meal plans consisted of take-out, fast food, and greasy cafeteria slop. Needless to say the pounds packed on quite fast.

Now... Earlier this month I joined a local gym that a few friends and my co-workers go to. It's time for a life change... I workout 5 sometimes 6 days a week with one rest. Usually doing M, W, and F as full body strength training and T, Th, S as cardio with Sunday off.

I haven't changed my diet that much except for replaced soda, sweets, and junk food with healthier options, cutting down proportions, and going out to eat a lot less.

My goal is to drop to 225 pounds by the end of summer. Eventually getting down to around 205 pounds and 19% BF in a year if not earlier.

thats awesome you sounds like your on the right track.. im 135lbs and 5"1 and i have been mostly jogging to try and get the weight off. i also want to lose 30lbs. any pointers? :P

I'm going to assume *I know what that means* that you're a girl, for that reason and the fact that I am in no way experienced or qualified to train people means that my advice might be waaaayyy off...

The first thing I did was watch what I was eating and adjust based on that. I love food! so cutting out a lot of the bad stuff sucked, but I feel that going from a sedentary lifestyle smaller portions and healthier options is going to make a improvement no matter what.

For exercise I will do a fully body workout 3 times a week... working out each part doing 3 different exercises at 3 sets, of 15 reps (the lighter weight and more reps you do the leaner the muscle)

So something like this:

Back, Chest, Legs, and abs exercise
Different Back, Chest, Legs, and abs exercise
A different Back, Chest, Legs, and abs exercise

On Cardio days I will do atleast 45min. of either biking, rowing, elliptical... I just try and aim for a certain number of calories or distance and let the time be what it needs to be as long as it's over 45min.

Again not sure if this is any help or if this even is a good system but I can already feel and see the results after a few weeks so I'm sticking with it. Just be sure to switch up the exercises so your body doesn't get use to them

Hope that helped?

With your activity level and size I bet you can get to 225 by the end of the summer if you watch your diet really well. Sounds like you're off to a great start--keep it up!

Regards,
Michael

Urbanmule,

Congrats on making the changes to better yourself. I have a question about your workout. When you say full body workout are you doing compound moves like dead lift, squats & pull ups or isolated moves like leg press, leg curls, etc? I ask b/c I see you also do abs and when I do stuff like dead lifts it works back, legs & my abs, just as chin ups will work my back, arms & shoulders. Just curiors.

Thanks everyone for your support i know you folks know a lot. 225 by the end of the summer would be awesome, however I feel really burdened when it comes to counting/paying close attention to my diet... Mainly because I have no clue where to begin. To answer 01gt4.6 question, the routine I posted was just an outline to show what I was talking about, I mix in a lot more of both isolated and compound lifts, all depends on what I feel for that day.

Let me know if you have anymore advice or questions

You have no clue where to begin? Logging food and activities can seem overwhelming at first, trust me you get use to it rather quickly. Seeing that you are wanting to lose weight, you have a goal weight and time already set, you sir, have already begun!

Click the Weight Goal tab and enter in the information for your goal. Then log everything that goes in your mouth. Some people like to eat like "normal" at first, or what their normal is just to see how bad things really were. It can be a big wake up call. Others just dive right in and eat clean. Some allow cheat days or a cheat meal every week, some don't.

The best advice I can give to you is log everything (or as close as humanly possible). This includes food and activities. Now I don't log taking out the trash or minor things, but I do log my hours of sleep and any physical activities I do (work out, cardio, tennis, whatever).

Make sure you burn more than you take in, your weight goal will tell you how much more to burn. Clean eating is key. Some people make small changes and again, others jump right in. The bigger the effort you put in, the better the results will be. No that food are not created equal, 20 grams of carbs from a candy bar isn't the same as 20g of carbs from steamed broccoli. 60g or protein from friend chicken with gravy, isn't the same as 60g of protein from baked chicken breast. Try to limit (or cut out) junk food, sodas, beer, etc. Drink plenty of water and eat health, nutrient dense foods like: lean beef, chicken, fish, veggies, veggies, veggies (oh did I mention veggies?), fruit, nuts, avocados, etc.

Look up the member named tandoorichicken here. His signature tells you what to do. :D

You may be surprised that some foods you once hated, you'll grown to like or even love.

I spliced to edit it down. I know where to begin, like I said any step in the right direction is good, so I dove right into eating healthy and allowing one cheat day (wed) and the rest is cleaner then before. I've entered my info for my goal but haven't started tracking yet... will do starting tomorrow. The main thing that throws me which is probably just because I haven't ever really looked at it is the split between carbs, protein, sugar(? that last one could be wrong)... I've read that 40.40.20 is a good split, but what exactly does that mean and I'm not sure I can get a accurate reading on that unless I check all the nutrition labels on the box, which I'm not a big fan of. I've cut all junk/soda/and gave up alcohol for lent so I'm good on that. Just trying to get in the right amount of everything for the day.

A typical day consists of:
140 oz. of Water and
Oatmeal for breakfast
Snack (granola bar, yogurt, fruit, veggie)
Sandwich for lunch (peanut butter or lean meat)
Snack (granola bar, yogurt, fruit, veggie)
Dinner (lean meats, veggies, rice, soup)
And usually one protein shake after working out

40/40/20 more than like means your calories come from 40%carbs, 40%protein, 20% fat. You see a pie chart once you started logging your food that should your percentages. I tried that for a while, then I switched to 40c/35p/24f. I had good result with both and they are very similar. Now my pie chart looks like the opposite, but it's working. I try to switch it up every now and then.

Hi Mike, how would you do the 40/40/20 or changing it, please give an example by food, and when you change also how would you also change the food...EXAMPLES PLEASE....as I joined on the 9th of this month and I need to lose 25kgm...and I already started to receive valuable support from many people here, so still I'll be in need for more PLEASE!

when I get home I'll post up one of my days from the past.

here's a 45/35/20 day
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...1gt46/2035.jpg

All right first weigh-in I'm at 256.8 and my body fat is at 29% Not to bad for a little under a months work in my opinion...

wow, not bad indeed.

Along with dropping the pounds I want to focus on lowering my bodyfat. I hope to get down to 19% by the end of summer. Now how do I focus on burning just fat and not lean muscle?

lift heavy, eat good foods (cut out junk and sugars) and take in enough protein. It should be pretty easy. Once your body fat drops lower, it gets harder.

I'm down in south carolina for the weekend and went kayaking out on the lake today, feels good to actually see progress rather then just look at a screen that says how far I went...

Can't wait for kayaking season to start here in NY (around May 1). At that point, I'll switch at least part of my exercise routine to upper body workouts (sprinting on the Erie Canal), where I can actually enjoy using muscles and cruising past egrets and herons and other boats and things. By the end of the summer, I ALWAYS have incredible upper body strength, thanks to the kayak.

Down to 256... really getting into the gym and enjoying learning new excersises. The biggest difference I notice is feeling different muscles that I didn't know I had plus I can start to see more definition which is a good feeling... overall very pleased and can't wait to see the changes over the next month

wow nearly 20 pounds already! You're making great progress!

It's crazy it doesn't feel like its been that long, I know it's just the first month and I will start to plateu and I'll have to work harder from now on...

I had off work this past week for spring break (the perks of being a teacher) and I moved to the northside of town, 20min away from the gym I was going too... there is another location about 10min up the road but I haven't been back in a gym since friday :( it makes me sad, but I am down to 253 now...

Good going!

Our districts spring break starts Friday (yea!).

253 is great--that's where I am right now, too. Of course, it's taken me almost a year to get there :D.

Regards,
Michael

Down to 250

I've been stuck at around 248 for the past two weeks... have I hit my Plateu? I'm going to switch it up this next week and see what happens

you probably need to change your diet up for a short period of time. I did that, I went high fat, high protein and low carb a while back and the weight fell off and I was in like a yr long plateau with my weight. It feel off so fast that I had to quit doing it after a few weeks. The diet was great though... grilled chicken with melted pepperjack cheese, sauteed onion and mushrooms with real butter, steak, nuts, veggies, 2 servings per day of fruit or milk or a combination of the 2, eggs (fried in butter), bacon, real ranch dressing (not that low fat BS). If you need to see my food logs during that time I can post it up.
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...7tomarch24.jpg

post # 202 I go into details about what I did and how I felt http://www.fitday.com/fitness/forums...7-11-a-21.html
posts 219 & on are charts of everything.

I'm not saying that it's the best route for you but it sure as hell worked for me. I hoovered around 174 lbs for the longest time. on occasion I would dip down a bit, usually to 171 ish (on 7/4/10 I dropped below 170) but I seemed to always drift back to 174... which is where I am now. I quickly dropped to 168.8 doing that "diet".

This past week I tried to break my "plateau" if that's what it was I'm not sure...

I was reading somewhere about tiring the muscles out before you actually life. So before I lifted I would do 3 sets of 25 reps at half weight (between 25-35) depending on the lift, then I would lift at the normal weight (between 50-75) I did this for 4 days taking a day of rest in between and no cardio.

Results:
1. Back to the original weight of 246
2. Added between 20-25 pounds to each lift, now around 75-80 vs 50-75
3. Feel a lot better knowing I'm back on track

So I lost track of this thread over the past few months... My official weigh in today was at 229.7! I haven't been under 230 since I was a Sophomore in College. I'm kinda excited

Congrats! :D

You'll be under 200 before you know it. I've still got around two pounds to go to be under my all-time low (in '01) of 184. Would sure like to see that before 01/01/12.

Keep on keepin' on!

Regards,
Michael