Advice for a newbie please

[Fat-boy]

I’m looking for some advice, I wanted to join a gym in mid September after the holidays but don’t want to hinder my progress by waiting.

I’m 6’2” and was around 310 lbs on May 13th the day I started Akins, I was on Atkins till May 30th and then switched to a reduced calorie and have been tracking my progress ever since on sparkpeople.com . My caloric intake is between 2080 and 2430 and I have been doing cardio and lifting weights at home.

I do 30 min 5 times a week on our treadmill, do some core exercises every second day and lift weight on a 1 on 2 off.

Cardio – 30 min & aprox.2 miles : Sun, Tue, Wed, Thur, Sat.

Core exercises – Crunches, Crunches with twist, Lying adduction (leg raises), Wall push ups, Wrist curls. 2 sets of 15 : Every second day.

Lifting weights – Flat Bench Press, Concentration Curls or Hammer Curls, Tricep kick backs or tricep extensions. 4 or 5 sets of 7 or 8 reps. : 1 day on and 2 off.

I don’t worry about a 40/40/20 or anything I just stay with in my allowed calories.

Don’t ask how I came up with this, well ok I’ll just explain. I started the treadmill and weight lifting on May 13th and when I came across spark people I added in the other core stuff.

It’s been 6 weeks and I’m down 30 lbs to 280 and feel great and can’t wait to do more. It was my plan to do this till Mid September and then join a gym and start bulking and worry about cutting in the spring. It’s 11 weeks till mid sept and in that time I have 3 weeks holidays and things get busy in the summer so that’s my reasoning for waiting and I kind of wanted to finish something before starting something new, getting down to 250 would be nice too.

So what do you think? Should I start at a gym and do a proper 4 or 5 day spit or stick with what I’m doing or something similar till sept?

[LordEmergencY]

My advice, start NOW! You have the motivation and determination from the 30 pounds off, and with the working out and proper dieting, on more is to come! In addition to that, a lot of Gyms have a summer special you can take advantage of. No problems in saving money. It is up to you however, but I would personally say start right away.

Good luck friend.

[emplate]

hey bro.. welcome

its great your doing all the cardio, it is melting the weight off you..

"I don’t worry about a 40/40/20 or anything I just stay with in my allowed calories"

I think should start do some more research/build a proper diet that would fit that because its going to make your metabolism really, really, ridiculously efficient at burning nasty ass adipose.. You'll figure one day you don't even need to do cardio to lose weight. Joining a new gym always comes with awesome motivation too, you'll get down to your goal's in no time when your training, push hard and work on your diet

[Fat-boy]

I think I'll look into the new gym, anyone else?

[Odin]

Good job so far. Diet is the key, get it dialed in and yes, do a proper lifting split. What did you think we were going to say?

[Fat-boy]

I checked out one of the gyms and wasn't overly impressed, everything seemed ok just not a lot of equipment. I still want to talk to one of the personal traners.

I am going to check out the other gym down the street, it's a lot larger.

[Dan1el]

Great work so far, get into the gym as soon as you can.

Try and find a gym you feel comfortable in, with knowlegable trainers there. They can be invaluable to people starting out. Make sure it has all of the machines you want, and isnt filled with only advanced fitness fanatics as this can also be off putting for newbies.

Remember, you are going to be spending a lot of time in the place so make sure it has everything you need and a nice atmosphere.

Best of luck bud,

Dan

[lifequest]

Firstly congrats on the progress, you’ve done what many have been unable to. Now the goal is to keep that weight off and lose more. To do so a few things need to change. Don’t rationalize not doing things…aka make excuses.

You are seeing progress with cutting calories…imagine how much better your progress could be with a CLEAN diet!! What ever the excuse please change your diet as I’m worried it is something like:

Bowl of cereal, banana
McDonalds cheese burger
Slice pizza
Yogurt

And so forth

Please post your diet.

Next stop making excuses to not go to the gym, find a good one and get your ass over there immediately. Move some weight around. Your body will want to get ride of LBM if you are cutting so lifting weights is a must. Just start, who cares if you’ll miss a few days due to holidays. Make them up when you get back. Good luck--LQ

[BiologyBabe]

It is VERY impressive the progress you have made; However you need to get to the gym quick-- Diet is a HUGE peice in this puzzle, but don't sit around and let your body eat your muscles! Find a gym, lift some weight, get on that treadmill! Good luck

[writeknight]

Congrats on getting started! That's generally the hardest part. As you see things happening, I find it motivates me to continue and improve my routines.

I agree with the others that you should hit the weights. It will speed up your fat loss progress. Also, don't neglect your legs in the workouts. They have large muscles which means you can add lots of mass there. More muscle mass burns more calories.

[Fat-boy]

Wow, Thanks for all your responses!

I thought I may be able to buy another used weight set out of the paper and add it to what I have in the garage. Then I could add some more exercises and that might get me through till sept.

I see now that is a waste of time, money and valuable garage space. ;-)

I will have a membership to a gym in the next few days and will start a new chapter of my transformation. I’m going to check out that other gym in a few minutes and hope it’s to my liking. Those two are just a few blocks from my house and I would have to drive 20 to 25 minutes to get to any others. I think it would be better to have it close, am I right?

I have been eating fairly clean, I’ll post on that when I get back from checking out that gym.

Thanks

[MissVanessa]

I’m looking for some advice, I wanted to join a gym in mid September after the holidays but don’t want to hinder my progress by waiting.

I’m 6’2” and was around 310 lbs on May 13th the day I started Akins, I was on Atkins till May 30th and then switched to a reduced calorie and have been tracking my progress ever since on sparkpeople.com . My caloric intake is between 2080 and 2430 and I have been doing cardio and lifting weights at home.

I do 30 min 5 times a week on our treadmill, do some core exercises every second day and lift weight on a 1 on 2 off.

Cardio – 30 min & aprox.2 miles : Sun, Tue, Wed, Thur, Sat.

Core exercises – Crunches, Crunches with twist, Lying adduction (leg raises), Wall push ups, Wrist curls. 2 sets of 15 : Every second day.

Lifting weights – Flat Bench Press, Concentration Curls or Hammer Curls, Tricep kick backs or tricep extensions. 4 or 5 sets of 7 or 8 reps. : 1 day on and 2 off.

I don’t worry about a 40/40/20 or anything I just stay with in my allowed calories.

Don’t ask how I came up with this, well ok I’ll just explain. I started the treadmill and weight lifting on May 13th and when I came across spark people I added in the other core stuff.

It’s been 6 weeks and I’m down 30 lbs to 280 and feel great and can’t wait to do more. It was my plan to do this till Mid September and then join a gym and start bulking and worry about cutting in the spring. It’s 11 weeks till mid sept and in that time I have 3 weeks holidays and things get busy in the summer so that’s my reasoning for waiting and I kind of wanted to finish something before starting something new, getting down to 250 would be nice too.

So what do you think? Should I start at a gym and do a proper 4 or 5 day spit or stick with what I’m doing or something similar till sept?

Congradulations on your success. However...

Your weight lifting program is really poor. You're going to end up really unbalanced. Training chest without training back is dangerous.

The lower body contains two of the largest muscle groups in the body. Training them is the most effective energy depleting (i.e. fat burning) weight training exercise you can do. Not training lower body is a big mistake.

You are also not training your deltoids.

As far as your cardio goes, working at that intensity will work for only a certain period of time. Your cardiorepiratory system will become more efficient very quickly and this workout will require less work which will meanless benefit. So what you need to do is increase the intensity in small incriments once every two weeks. This can be done by: Adding a 1% incline per increase. Decreasing the time by 5 minutes without decreasing the distance. Or increasing the distance without increasing the time.

VanessaNicole

[Fat-boy]

Congradulations on your success. However...

Your weight lifting program is really poor. You're going to end up really unbalanced. Training chest without training back is dangerous.

The lower body contains two of the largest muscle groups in the body. Training them is the most effective energy depleting (i.e. fat burning) weight training exercise you can do. Not training lower body is a big mistake.

You are also not training your deltoids.

As far as your cardio goes, working at that intensity will work for only a certain period of time. Your cardiorepiratory system will become more efficient very quickly and this workout will require less work which will meanless benefit. So what you need to do is increase the intensity in small incriments once every two weeks. This can be done by: Adding a 1% incline per increase. Decreasing the time by 5 minutes without decreasing the distance. Or increasing the distance without increasing the time.

VanessaNicole

When I started I just wanted to start doing something and this was before I found BB.com. I will rectify this situation very soon.

[Fat-boy]

Ok, I went to the other gym. It is way bigger, 3 floors, squash courts, TV’s everywhere and lots of people. The person giving me the tour said it’s not normally this busy, I don’t know if that’s a sales job or what. It is way fancier computer scanning to get in, marble floors in the shower/change room, and supplements and power bars at the front counter. It’s more costly also 120 upfront and 40 a month for 24 months.

The smaller gym I looked at the other day is 38/month for 12 months.

I don’t know if I should check out the other gyms out of the area or pick one of these. I don’t normally take a long time to decide on things, I just want to give myself the best chance of a positive experience.

[Fat-boy]

Diet for June 26, 2006

Meal 1, 5am – Coffee, cream, splenda – 41 cal
1.5 cups Vector cereal & 1 cup skim milk – 348 cal

Meal 2, 8am – Banana – 93 cal
Blueberry bran muffin (made myself) – 158 cal
100 g Bbq chicken brest plane no sauce – 110 cal

Meal 3, 11am - 100 g Bbq chicken brest plane no sauce – 110 cal
1 cup brown rice 216 cal
.25 cup Que Pasa salsa 15 cal

Meal 4, 2pm – 1 cup skim milk & 1 scoop whey – 210 cal

Meal 5, 5pm - 125 g Bbq chicken brest plane no sauce – 138 cal
1 cup brown rice 216 cal
.25 cup Que Pasa salsa 15 cal

Meal 6, 8pm – 1.25 cups skim milk – 113 cal
2 scoops whey – 240 cal
3 tbsp natural peanut butter – 285 cal
.25 cup Oats – 75 cal
10 blueberries – 8 cal


Tatal – 2391 cal , 219 carbs, 167 PROTEIN, 51 fat



I made a mistake when inputting my food into the calculator and forgot some. That’s why my shake at 8pm has larger portions than normal, I was trying to get up to my calorie minimum. I still ended up in the range set up for me 2080 to 2430.

Not perfect by any means. It has been getting better and better.

[Fat-boy]

Well I joined a gym today and did my first workout. I picked the smaller of the two that is about 3 blocks from my house.

I put my bench and weights in the paper to sell them so I can have the space back in my garage.

I'm going to do the "Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength routine" and did workout "A" today, squat, bench and deadlift. I think that will be good to get me started and through the summer and in September go from there.

I just changed my cardio a few days ago from 30 min a day/ 5 days a week to a HIIT program.

So I'm basically moving to a new stage of my transformation. The first 6 weeks I lost 30 lbs and started lifting and cardio in my garage. Over the next 8 to 10 weeks I hope to loose more weight and get onto the habit of going to the gym so come September I can take it to a new level.