So i'm trying to lose this "out the military, screw it" weight.

right now, my measurements are 5'11, 227 lbs. 37 inch waist.

trying to get back to about a 34 inch waist, back to about 195-205 lbs.

however, i feel like i peaked.

here's my current workout routine:

30 minute elliptical at 7.5 mph

push ups - 3 sets, 50 reps
sit ups - 4 sets, 40 reps

bench:

pryamids - 2 sets, 15 reps 135lbs; 2 sets, 12 reps 185lbs; 2 sets, 10 reps 205; 2 sets, 8 reps 225lbs, then backwards

squats:

pyramids - 2 sets, 20 reps of 155lbs; 2 sets 15 reps 205lbs; 2 sets, 10 reps at 275lbs; 2 sets, 8 reps of 315lbs, and backwards

sit ups - 2 sets of 50

then i end it with 30 minute elliptical at a 5.5mph pace.

the problem is this is easy, and it's making me look like a damn tank. i need lean muscle mass.

Purp, i know you that dude when it comes to cardio. any body else that has any suggestions, please please please let me know. i will try whatever.

If you're doing all of that and not losing weight, you need to change your diet.

i knew that was coming.

food taste so good....

I bought a book years ago called Body for Life...by Bill Phillips.

Followed that pretty religiously and other then the past year of my life..always got comments on how I was built looked..dont look anywhere near my age ect..

so idk about others but that has worked for me and for years.

Less fat, more lean, lot's of veggies. Meat should be an equal part of the meal, not the centerpiece.

aight imma hit up barns & noble today see if i can find it.

One other thing its not always the length of the routine but its intensity and how the body adapts very quickly..so change up your routine often.

word. yea i'm looking for new routine ideas. hoping some of you guys post some.

i was looking at different body building forums, but a lot of those guys juice, i aint into all that.

If you decide to get the book it has great efficient work out routines..its about being efficient with your time and getting the most from it.

I'd recommend martial arts. Speed, agility, and strength are the qualities they tend to build.

I did this also with my sons when they was young..They lost interest after about 5yrs of doing the classes/tournaments

I was in a Tae Kwon Do class a few years ago that didn't do tournaments. They taught traditional, not the US version. I learned a lot of joint manipulations and lethal moves. The basic idea was to disable an opponent quickly, not impress them. I don't think I was ever going to do a spinning jump kick into someone's head, but I would dislocate a shoulder or elbow and drive my heel into their spine just below the neck. Power moves are more suited to my size and strength over finesse.

we did Jujitsu..I loved it ...they got bored kind of..and went onto sports in high school.

There is only one way you can gain muscle and lose weight at the same time......and it's illegal. It involves intramuscular injections.


Calorie surplus to gain muscle.

Calorie deficit to lose fat.



They are conflicting goals. Do one or the other at any given time.

Double the aerobic stuff. I suggest swimming for a longer twitch muscle. The lighter & higher rep stuff may help too.

Lift opposite sets; old guy taught me this (bodybuilder). If you do a set of curls for bicep, immediately follow it with asset for triceps. He recommended slow reps as well and fewer of them to avoid joint wear and tear.

Good luck!

More bacon, less bread. Seriously, it's all about the carbs and the sugars. Cut them out.

Secondly, when you do the elliptical, it should be burst/rest for 30 minutes. warm up, go as hard as you can for a minute, then a relaxed pace for 2 minutes, then hard for a minute, then relaxed pace for 2 minutes, and so on. Way better for you than just plugging along at a moderate (or even quick) pace for the entire 30 minutes..

*Sigh*

8 years ago, I was in the best shape of my life. I had a goal of getting down to a 34 inch waist by the time I hit 44 .... and I actually got to a 32 inch waist. I was working out daily, was down to 195 well distributed, strong pounds, and I felt great!

Then my back went, and I have added 10 inches to that waist size. Man that's depressing.

Yes HIT training can be very effective.

Step one: Go to the store, buy a case of 12 oz cans of beer (your choice of brand)

Step two: go home, and do a series of 12 oz curls on the couch until the beer is gone, preferably in front of the TV with doritos.

Do that every day and in no time, you'll loose a ton of weight. Because you'll lose your job and won't be able to afford food and thus, weight loss.. Magic right? LOL

I can tell you this right here right now, clean up your diet/eating habits first if all you want to do is shred up some gut/waistline.

Your gains will be noticeably better. Good luck!

I'm sorry, ignore my post above, I should have read the replies (least the first one, haha)

What Erik said!

thanks for the info and suggestions guys!!!

Are you going for Strength, or get lean.

I have been working out with a strength trainer and we are doing some crazy Strength stuff. We are doing some load training (I think thats what its called)

Load training work out today with the flat bench

1 set 50 reps x 45 lbs.
1 set 10 reps x 65 lbs.
1 set 10 reps x 85 lbs.
1 set 10 reps x 105 lbs.
1 set 10 reps x 125 lbs.
1 set 10 reps x 145 lbs
1 set 10 reps x 165 lbs
1 set 7 reps x 185 lbs
Now since I failed at 185, I did 5 sets of 10 (with his assistance)
1 set 10 reps x 185 lbs
1 set 10 reps x 185 lbs
1 set 10 reps x 185 lbs
1 set 10 reps x 185 lbs
1 set 10 reps x 185 lbs

I ended up doing a total 13 sets for a total of 19,695 lbs in 30 minutes of only bench press(with the last 5 assisted.) My chest was pumped and still feels fatigued right now.

You could just start training with me.... I'll shoot you an email each day with my training schedule for the day

I think that might be the weed

As far as your routine goes, focus on more intensity. You're really blowing your muscles up with your split. It really emphasizes form and size of the muscle, with how many sets and reps you're doing. Try to focus on more weight, but far less reps. This will give you a wiry strength that it sounds like you're looking for a bit.

Also you should make your ab workouts more of a cardio. Doing situps are nice, but you should be doing a gauntlet of exercises for it and increase the cardio so you're sweating.

As far as running is concerned, quick sprints mixed with walking is the quickest way to burn calories. Sprinting for 10-20 seconds then spending the next minute walking would be the best. I've always read that you should do that combination for a mile for best results.

That said, I prefer long cardio. While it's less effective in burning calories (Due to how the body converts energy. I could send you a link to the science behind it if you'd like.) I find the increased stamina of running long distances is much more important than losing weight quickly.

One absolute I've learned is that losing weight is about 80% diet. I tried for so long to do the small meals regularly thing, but it never worked for me because I'm an all-or-nothing kind of guy.

I came to learn that you just have to do what works for you. So now I limit my eating to an 8 hour window each day (16/8). I also limit myself to 600 calories a day 2 days a week (5:2 Diet). On the other 5 days, I try to stay within my total daily energy expenditure. It may not work for everyone, but it does work for me, which I think is the important thing for each person.

As far as actually working out, I like to go to the gym, put a pretty sharp angle on the treadmill and put it at an interval setting. Sprint for 45 seconds, rest for 1:15. Repeat over and over.

I will say I lost a good amount of weight, and all blood test results were much better.

Hope it all works out for you and you hit your goals, bud.

This is a common misconception, actually. Re-read your science.... I'm willing to bet that it is referencing percentages of calories burned from fat, or something to that effect as the basis for its premise.

The simple fact is this: The number of calories burned sub-threshold (your half marathon or marathon pace) per mile is effectively identical to your threshold (10k pace, or max 1-hour pace) calories per mile, as your anaerobic paces (1mile-5k pace). The only thing that differs among them is where your body turns for energy, whether it is glycogen or fats, and that is dependent upon your intensity - a.k.a. Heart Rate. Converting fat to burn can only be done efficiently at lower intensities, but in the case of glycogen depletion, the body will turn to fat to begin to replenish its stores.

In the end, as long as you get your HR up into your aerobic range (above your recovery zone), your rate of burn will be effectively identical - that is to say that there MAY be a difference, but it will be negligible to the point of being within the standard margin of error. Believe me (well, if you choose), as someone who regularly burns 2,000+ calories per day (avg. daily minimum is on the order of 800-1100 calories) on workouts while tracking ALL of the data possible, I have a fairly good grasp on it.

I used to do the elliptical alongside my strength training. Well, I still do, but only for about 15 min. Now, I also run for an hour after work every other day. My normal workouts are in the weeee hours of the morning.

I've found that the elliptical pales in comparison to running and I've noticed considerable weigh loss (although I wasn't really looking for it) by putting more emphasis on running in my workout schedule than the elliptical-- it makes sense though.

Anyways, I'd consider switching that part of your cardio if weight loss is the goal, even if in the short term.

Change your shape= Strength Workout
Change your size= Cardio Workout

But, as someone else said, the diet is just as important, especially for the weight loss portion.

any of you guys got any diet advice?

I have an excellent weight maintenance routine.

There's ~ 1,000 hand-picked songs on my MP3 player. I put that headset on, start my watch timer, and head-out. Before I know it I'm at an hour of walking time. (maybe 12-16 songs later)

This does two things: burns calories for an hour and uses up an hour of time not eating.

For the last 5 years my weight's been at an appropriate 185-190 lbs.

And I can eat a bucket of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with impunity.

Diet is King.

I've gone through exactly what you're trying to do, Swish. I was pushing 250lbs, wore 38" jeans that were too small only because I had too much pride to allow myself to buy size 40's. I ended up getting back to a 33" waist before settling out at 34.

I went extreme. I made a hardcore change in the way I ate, and I did it for about 7-8 months or so before I allowed myself to relax again. I began to make sure that I was only eating REAL foods. If it came from a box, I skipped it. I cut out pizza (for the most part). ALL Fast Food had to go, immediately. I cut out all desserts (sans Honey Hut ice cream). If it was a processed food, I got rid of it. I cut out ALL soda/pop. I didn't have to cut alcohol because I'm already sober, but that should be given big-time consideration as well - the body cannot use alcohol directly, it must convert it to a fat first. Alcohol is basically very calorie-dense and cannot be directly burned. Drink LOTS of water: the body is an electrical machine - keep it full of good conductors. You have to feed the machine, but you MUST break yourself of over-feeding the machine in order to get the weight to come off. Learn to eat just until you're not hungry instead of to the point you're stuffed.


That was the first half (80%+) of it, for me... the other half is what you're doing now. Some light weights work and LOTS of cardio. I began to get on the treadmill at minimum every other day, then built to every day. I would "jog" at 4 to 4.5mph for a minimum of 20 minutes. Eventually, I slowly built that to a pace of 6 to 6.5 mph for up to 35-45 minutes by way of doing intervals.... and by that time, I had lost a ton.


MuscleMass + Heart Rate = metabolism. Get those muscles working and the heart rate up and your metabolism will go into high gear.

TO add to this your body must stop everything that you are doing and process the alcohol, so lets say your metabolism is on full throttle from eating clean or just got done lifting a crazy work out and you are still in an anabolic state. Your body must stop it and focus on processing the alcohol.

This is has been my issue, hit the gym hard 5 days a week and drink on weekends and lose my gains and have to restart the process. I made a commitment to stop the boozing so I won't kill my gains. I think its working!

/sigh because of a 6 pack of IPA is delicous

Having a good diet is pretty simple.

Eat meats, veggies, nuts, and fruits. Some grains and a little starch. Don't do a lot of sugar. Cut out sugary drinks and stick to H2O and tea w/ honey and what not.


Bottom line-if you ever find yourself having to justify what you're about to eat (i.e. "I ate pretty good today", "it's only a couple chips", "I need the caffeine so I'll just have this Soda"), it's probably a food you shouldn't be eatnig.


Realistically, if you are eating the food I listed above, you probably don't need to count calories or do anything crazy. Just eat solid, whole food, ease up on sugary sauces (garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil go a ong way), and you'll carve yourself up pretty quick.

If you are feeling drowsy during the day, you probably need to eat more. If you feel bloated and sluggish, you probably don't need as much.

Figuring out your diet isn't difficult, it's the discipline needed to stay on track.

To add to that, good things to eat as snack food is carrot sticks (they make you feel more full) and as TI84 said, nuts... proteins will help you feel full longer.

When I pack lunches for work, I always take two whole carrots cut into sticks. That's enough to graze on and not feel hungry pretty much all day.

I applaud your dedication. I workout so I don't become a fat cow and look pretty good and stay healthy, that's all. If adding just a bit more muscle mass means giving up having beers on the weekend, then I can do without the muscle mass. Life is still supposed to be fun and I'm not working toward any trophies, movie roles, or sports contract.. so if you don't need that IPA, ship it on over here.

Absolutely!
Know your goals, and plan accordingly. Everything is a tradeoff between goals, desire, & time..... find the balance that fits you.

I have 2-3 boiled egss and almonds to snack on every day.

I always struggled with breakfast...Who doesn't want a breakfast burito from the food cart lady in front of my building?

I have a co-worker who eats oatmeal everyday packed with fruit and almonds and does not use sugar. I thought it was disgusting until I tried it. My breakfast now 5 days a week is oatmeal with banana, almonds, mixed berries, cinnamon and a little bit of honey. Its healthy, fills me up and not loaded with the extra stuff, the banana is sweet enough that every bite tastes good.

If you want to get serious... then here's what I'd do:

Go to Fitday or some other site that allows you to enter the food you eat, and it'll calculate the calories and macronutrients, etc and break it all down for you. I'd at least supply a week's worth so you can get a great idea of your average numbers.

From there, i'd start cutting down calories from 500 increments. Using FitDay will show you the food and how many carbs/calories/proteins/etc etc etc for you, so you'll know what you'll need to start cutting out.

Depending on your body, If you have a faster metabolism (doesn't sound like it) you could start at 250 calorie increments, and see where your body starts responding to losing weight.

It's kinda creepy, but it's cool to know your body and it's thresholds. I feel like I have a huge advantage to newbie weight lifters because I have taken the time to do this and give attention to the dieting side of adding muscle. Anyone can lift a free weight, do 50 situps in a row - but can you feed your body the proper nutrients so it can grow/rebuild?

In any case, good luck bro.

I went through a period where I ate steel-cut oats every morning. I'd add some pumpkin pie spice to the water when I cooked them, then I'd add a little honey when I scooped out a bowl of it. I'd usually cook up about 4 days worth at a time and keep it in the fridge. I'd occasionally add some walnuts and/or raisins when cooking them, too. To go with it, I'd usually just put 1-2 eggs in a bowl and nuke 'em for about 30-35 seconds - plenty enough to cook them.

It made grabbing a quick breakfast in the morning really simple, and more importantly it go the body going with some food, and that gets the metabolism going.

my problem with diet has always been this:

kinda wanna run a mile, kinda wanna eat 10 tacos.

I've yo-yoed my whole life. The quickest transformation I ever had was with P90X. It's an hour a day, 6 days a week of ball busting work, but you get results quick....really quick. There were a few others on here doing it a few years ago.

You're not wrong. Your grasp on the aerobic cycle far exceeds my own. The exercise style that I'm talking about tries to avoid the aerboic cycle though. Sprinting for 10 seconds doesn't allow oxygen to be used in converting energy. It uses the anaerobic cycle, which is less efficient in burning calories as it doesn't rely on calories. It's only used for about 10 seconds or so. That's why sprinting is key. Anything longer and an appropriate amount of oxygen fills your lungs and you start to be an efficient animal.

Just keep it simple. I've been on every sort of diet philosophy (Vegan, Paelo, Atkins, and Primitive fwiw) and they all seem pretty effective.

I used to be vegan and work out. I kept the gains going while not eating meat. You just have to know that your body needs protein, carbs, and fat. You can find any of these through numerous sources. I drank protein shakes and ate nuts when I was a vegan to get up that protein. Fats and oils, you don't need that much of and can suffice it with just cooking with them. Coconut oil keeps me going. Make sure to avoid omega 6 fats when you can and replace them with omega 3.

The real trick is carbs. Most diet plans actually approach carbs the same way. Keep the complex carbs and get rid of the sugary, processed, simple carbs. Your carbs should be things coming from nature. If you think they ate it 200 years ago then it's probably a complex carb and you should eat it. White grains are considered simple and you should stay away from them.
Fruits and veggies are another simple carb, but they act as complex carbs in the system. Feel free to pile on them. Especially celery. It has no calories and provides glucose to the body. It's the perfect snack food for mental naps.

Just make sure to grab your macro and micro nutrients somehow and you should be good. Although vitamins aren't nearly as effective in being retained by the body as they do when found in foods.

Just remember that the longer you do a diet the better it feels. Don't give up on a diet because you're not feeling it at first.

So, run two miles and have 7 tacos.

Without the shells.

What are your goals?

One fundamental thing to realize is that past the beginner stage (and based on your posted workouts, you are obviously not a beginner), you can't improve everything at once. It would be far too much work. You would end up throwing together heavy strength work, high volume hypertrophy work, lots of cardio, some HIIT etc, etc. and soon enough you will end up being some combination of backsliding, overtrained, miserable, and injured.

Sounds kind of silly but it happens all. the. time. Know your limits, pick a primary goal and perhaps a secondary goal and work on it for a block of training (perhaps 1-3 months), deload for a short time, then hit it hard again or pick something else to focus on while maintaining the rest. You can maintain adaptations for extended periods of time with reduced volume and frequency and training as so long as you maintain the intensity (weight on the bar + reps, aerobic pace, whatever) I will come back to this in a bit.

For weight training, if you don't how how to set up a program I'd recommend just picking something proven and sticking to it. Most of the people who post on bodybuilding forums are idiots. Just stop reading that nonsense before your brain explodes (and yes, a lot of those guys use juice and that is so effective that it tends to make the quality of training not mean so much. Pump enough drugs in you and you will get huge and ripped no matter how crappy your training, diet, and life is.)


What kind of training do you like? There are the routines in the Bill Starr, Mark Rippetoe, Glenn Pendlay mold that usually go something like a squat, a press, and a pull from the floor for fairly low reps and low volume. The routines would be Starting Strength, Texas Method, Madcow's routines, and some others. Bill Starr (strength coach of the Super Bowl winning 1970 Colts) has a somewhat famous book called 'The Strongest Shall Survive' which has some classic routines.

With that said, I don't like this style of training. I've done it before and kind of grew out of it. However if you like squatting and/or only have a minimum of equipment (e.g. barbell and power rack) these can be good routines.

There are a lot of popular 2 way splits out there. Most are 3-4 days a week upper/lower+core, where it would go something like...

LU LU, LU LU
or
UL UL, UL UL
or
L U L, U L U
etc.

...on a two week basis. Each one does manipulates exercise choice, volume, intensity, frequency a little differently.

Lyle Mcdonald's generic bulking routine - good all around program, has more freedom to manipulate (and thus screw up if you make bad decisions) than most others

5/3/1 - Jim Wendler's program

DoggCrapp - favors intensity with techniques such as rest-pause training

Layne Norton has a 5 day split called PHAT that also hits everything 2x/week. That is far more than I like to be in the gym but it could be an option here as a hypertrophy routine.

Borge Fagerli has some good routines. His bigger contribution IMO is actually myo-reps, which isn't so much a routine as much as a time-efficient way to use rest-pause training in other routines. It is a milder form of rest-pause training than you would see in something like DoggCrapp although that is a positive for myo-reps in most situations.


All of the above can be useful to get stronger and/or more muscular if that is a primary goal. If something else is a primary goal (e.g. aerobic capacity and/or fat loss), reduce the length and/or number of weight workouts while keeping intensity the same. It's kind of a generic but stick to that general guideline and you'll be fine.

Eventually you realize that even just something like hypertrophy is too overriding of a goal. Try to bring everything up at once and it just wrecks you. There are ways around that e.g. specialization routines (bring up one or two exercises or bodyparts while maintaining the rest) but probably only 1% of people will ever need to go there.

For cardio, I would stick with a minimum of cardio in any mass/strength building phase. 3x/week steady state cardio for 20-30 min apiece is fine. Just maintain the cardio and save your energy for for the lifting.

Alternatively, in a cardio building block, you would focus more on cardio while reducing the amount of lifting. There are even a lot of options there. You could simply do more. Or if you wanted to work in HIIT, you might do something like HIIT 2x/week and steady state cardio 1x/week. HIIT leads to great short-term improvement but improvement tends to level off after only a few weeks or a little more. This leads to some very flawed interpretations of studies that may only last a month or so. You can look at the training of any high level endurance athlete-- most of their training is high volume, lower intensity work and then they 'top off' with HIIT in the month or so before a big race. Doing HIIT year-round is a major mistake that takes a great deal of recovery ability out of you without major benefit in the long run.


That's kind of a primer on a lot of different things anyway. Each of these ideas go much further and some are hotly contested (the thoughts on HIIT being a prime example).

For diet, here's a comically simplified idea: Eat things that your grandmother would approve of. That should apply to most of us younger posters. The older posters could use a diet their parents would approve of. For the most part, this would be a diet of solid choices, free of many of the modern gimmicks that require a whole lot of effort and that are useless at best.

Hahaha, Swish! I literally whispered the exact wording of your first response before I read it.

I'm no expert like some on here, but I always thought you had to lift lighter with higher weights to get the wiry look. Also, I'd look at the pacing of your workouts. I know that if I'm working within a program for a little bit and start to get bored, the pace of my workouts slow down.

Also, like some have already said, I'm never looking for extreme results, as I don't have the time nor motivation to chase that. Setting challenging but realistic fitness goals is key.

When I plateau, I also like to change things up a bit. Swimming might be what you're looking for. I know when I want to work out so I feel like I've been hit by a truck after, I usually swim.

If you want to get in a great cardio workout and lose weight it's easy.

OK you must start this exercise in your early 20's IMO it's good to start when you turn 21. Start by drinking one beer per day. Drink it right before your dinner so you feel fuller and eat less. Stick with this till you hit your 30's then increase your beer intake to 2 beers everyday right before dinner. This is very easy to do for the first 19 years but trust me it gets tougher. When you hit your 40's Go to up your beer intake to 6 beers per day and have them before breakfast. Also add in three bottles of water later in the afternoon. When you hit your 50's add another 6 beers before lunch, and add two more bottles of water before bed. By now your trips to the bathroom which were 3 or 4 times a day in your 20's should have increased to around 50 times a day and you will be sprinting to the bathroom every time. When you hit your 60's add another 6 pack of beer. Now your up to 18 beers per day and make sure you up your water intake to 18 bottles per day also (we don't want you getting dehydrated) You will now be too full to eat anything so make sure you double up on your daily vitamins. You should now be peeing 150 to 160 times per day and sprinting close to 25 miles per day. Your BMI should now be somewhere between Karen Carpenters and a skeleton's. You should also be buff as you would have lifted over 189,791 pounds by now.

You and I are the same there. I got over the hump by just forcing (it was hell) myself to get 2-3 days of healthy eating. I just told myself to get through the next hour, next couple hours, next day. After I made it through a few days, I actually started losing that food addiction feeling.

That was the hard part though. I really did feel "addicted," probably like you do. With processed foods and all the sugar that goes into things, I think we actually do feel addiction-like symptoms to have those high-fat/high-carb foods.

Wendler 5x3x1 with Big but Boring is what I would recommend. Can be done on a cut to preserve strength and even make some gains.

Of course if you're trying to lose weight calories in vs. calories out. Good luck OP

Try this one.. it's cheap and easy.. I call it the "Commercial workout"

Here's what ya do.. watch a movie, baseball game or a football game. Each time a commercial comes on.. hop on the floor and do pushups, situps, barbell curls etc.. until the commercial is over.. then watch some more tv.

There is definitely an addiction-like component to many processed foods. That is how a lot of foods are manufactured these days-- stronger initial 'reward' and once you are hooked, traditionally healthy and tasty foods are just kind of bland in comparison. It does not have to be that way! For example, fresh fruit tastes great on a healthy and balanced diet. It's just not going to give the same impact as your favorite pop or a cheesecake or whatever.

Regarding using diet to burn calories and then eating a ton of food: Realize that for most of us (meaning those of us who do not exercise obsessively and who are not in world-class shape) will not burn nearly as many Calories from exercise as we think. As a rough guide for how many Calories you are burning:

sitting around: ~1 Calorie/minute
standing: ~2 Calories/minute
walking: ~5 Calories/minute
steady state cardio: ~10 Calories/minute

Obviously those are ballpark estimates and much has to do with other factors like how much you weigh, etc. But take an hour walk, or do a brisk half hour on the elliptical and you are burning a few hundred calories. That's about a piece of pizza. Nothing necessarily wrong with pizza but that's not much.

Don't get me wrong, there are many reasons to exercise. I think just about everybody should regularly do at least some basic weightlifting and cardio. It improves body composition, is great for many parameters of health and longevity, great for the mind, etc.

If you want to lose weight though, the major contribution comes from diet. There are many styles of diets that can work. Personally I'm a middle-of-the-road kind of guy and food is no exception. In dieting terms that would equate roughly to zone-esque proportions (e.g. moderate carbs-- more than the paleo/low carbers allow for, but less than the quite high mainstream recommendations)

As a general idea, base a meal around a protein source (meat or fish or eggs), add in some veggies and/or fruit, and add other types of foods for calories e.g. nuts, dairy, starches/grains. Everybody seems to be a little different in terms of how much they can eat without gaining weight, what types of foods they tolerate well, and all that. I'm a tall/lean type, I try to get some exercise in just about every day (even if it's just a walk) and have no food allergies that I know of so I can eat just about anything. I still avoid some of the worst manufactured/processed junk foods, especially foods with trans fats or ridiculous amounts of sugar.

dude, awesome break down.

Thanks Swish. Fitness in general has been a hobby/passion of mine for a long time. I spent more time and effort on it when I was younger. I still put some energy into it of course, there is really no way around that to maintain good results but I kind of coast more and focus on doing the things that matter as opposed to being neurotic about things. That last bit is somewhat unfortunate-- there is so much misinformation out there and many people do such weird things in the context of dieting and working out that it can be a major turnoff to people who are new to it all.

quote by hasu above:

"...But take an hour walk, or do a brisk half hour on the elliptical and you are burning a few hundred calories. That's about a piece of pizza. Nothing necessarily wrong with pizza but that's not much."

But here's the deal: Burn that "extra" ~ 360 calories 5 times a week for a year and we're talking 90,000+ calories.

That's some serious poundage and the key to significant and healthy weight loss.

If only it were that easy. There are a few pitfalls in that logic:

- That is quite a lot of time: 5 hours/week spent just walking. Getting people to just do half of that can be tough.

- The body compensates in a variety of ways. You can't just make a dietary change or throw in some exercise, tally up the theoretical change in energy balance, and then say you will burn 90,000 extra calories [and thus lose 25 lb. of fat]. It does not work that way in the real world!

The first reason this does not work is one of the issues being discussed in this thread -- exercise tends to stimulate the appetite so some of those calories are being directly offset by simply eating more. Of course, a strict dieter with a lot of willpower can largely negate this but it does take some effort.

The other reason is that human metabolism adapts to an extent. That is, if you eat less and/or exercise more, metabolism will adjust to compensate. A key phrase there is 'to an extent'-- the adaptation will virtually always be less than the initial caloric deficit but it's still there. So if you are creating a 300 Calorie deficit up front, eventually various systems are downregulated to burn less energy. In more extreme diets you see people burn out with little energy, weakened immune system, reduced sex drive, etc. although none of those things have to happen or should happen at a healthy weight with a reasonably set up diet.

That's not to discourage walking or any other form of exercise. Walking can be great. It takes very little to recover from. It can be rejuvenating. It's great for physical and mental health. It can improve cardiovascular adaptations in beginners, and may contribute to it even in non-beginners. It can burn some calories which can be a nice side bonus so long as your diet is in check to take advantage of it-- it just won't lead to the results suggested in the above post. Not by itself anyway.

If one wants to lose weight, it's really a very simple process: calories IN need to be less than calories expended (out)

DOING that can be tough, but that's really it, at the core.

There are myriad ways of doing it, of course.

so just a quick update:

today i weighed myself, even after a night of drinking and pizza, but since the post, i changed up my diet like y'all said.

i'm at 219. when i made the post i was 227.

top of my abs are showing. gonna be beach bod ready by summer time.

If you need some motivation bro just remember your still 10 pounds heavier than me right now.