I'm fat and want to lean down (not bulk more)

[halivingston]

I've attached a photo of me that I took right now .. I look gross. This is the primary motivation; to look better. I used to be @ 176 pounds about 10 years ago, and I'm 260 pounds now. Almost 100 pounds over 10 years. To get my girl back, I need to be 176pounds again, at the very least. No, it's not been 10 years since we broke up, it's been like 2 months.
So my question really is, how do I burn this fat and get ripped?

I absolutely *do not* want to widen or bulk up at all. In fact, I have to slim or lean down, my face and body look too wide.

I'm yellow-brown, and from a culture that traditionally has men weighing between 120-160 pounds. I'm 184cm (6 ft), and ideally want to be @ 150 pounds. Is this too low? I feel like the lean guys in my culture get way more girls than the bulky muscular ones. Of course, the lean ripped ones get the most.

I'm turning 25 in like 10 days, and my the time I'm 26, I want to somewhere near my goal.

SO! The question I have is -- Do I lift weights at all? Do I just do cardio? Do I do interval training? Again, the idea is to lean down and NOT bulk at all, I think I've got enough.

I remember doing just cardio was boring and I felt I was losing weight at a slower pace, as compared to a mix of cardio and weights, but then again I don't want to gain mass.

Any insights are appreciated.!

[propep]

I've attached a photo of me that I took right now .. I look gross. This is the primary motivation; to look better. I used to be @ 176 pounds about 10 years ago, and I'm 260 pounds now. Almost 100 pounds over 10 years. To get my girl back, I need to be 176pounds again, at the very least. No, it's not been 10 years since we broke up, it's been like 2 months.
So my question really is, how do I burn this fat and get ripped?

I absolutely *do not* want to widen or bulk up at all. In fact, I have to slim or lean down, my face and body look too wide.

I'm yellow-brown, and from a culture that traditionally has men weighing between 120-160 pounds. I'm 184cm (6 ft), and ideally want to be @ 150 pounds. Is this too low? I feel like the lean guys in my culture get way more girls than the bulky muscular ones. Of course, the lean ripped ones get the most.

I'm turning 25 in like 10 days, and my the time I'm 26, I want to somewhere near my goal.

SO! The question I have is -- Do I lift weights at all? Do I just do cardio? Do I do interval training? Again, the idea is to lean down and NOT bulk at all, I think I've got enough.

I remember doing just cardio was boring and I felt I was losing weight at a slower pace, as compared to a mix of cardio and weights, but then again I don't want to gain mass.

Any insights are appreciated.!

150g of protein daily, less than 100g of carbs and dont pass 1200 calories a day, thats if you want results really fast ( that may be unhealthy). As far as your girlfriend, man, i know your probably pretty beat up over it but if your trying to lose weight for ONE person, it probably isn't going to workout and youll lose motivation.

[rippednmichigan]

I've attached a photo of me that I took right now .. I look gross. This is the primary motivation; to look better. I used to be @ 176 pounds about 10 years ago, and I'm 260 pounds now. Almost 100 pounds over 10 years. To get my girl back, I need to be 176pounds again, at the very least. No, it's not been 10 years since we broke up, it's been like 2 months.
So my question really is, how do I burn this fat and get ripped?

I absolutely *do not* want to widen or bulk up at all. In fact, I have to slim or lean down, my face and body look too wide.

I'm yellow-brown, and from a culture that traditionally has men weighing between 120-160 pounds. I'm 184cm (6 ft), and ideally want to be @ 150 pounds. Is this too low? I feel like the lean guys in my culture get way more girls than the bulky muscular ones. Of course, the lean ripped ones get the most.

I'm turning 25 in like 10 days, and my the time I'm 26, I want to somewhere near my goal.

SO! The question I have is -- Do I lift weights at all? Do I just do cardio? Do I do interval training? Again, the idea is to lean down and NOT bulk at all, I think I've got enough.

I remember doing just cardio was boring and I felt I was losing weight at a slower pace, as compared to a mix of cardio and weights, but then again I don't want to gain mass.

Any insights are appreciated.!

!50lbs at 6 foot is to low IMO, you should shoot for no less than 185lbs+. YES you should lift weights, weights are king! Lift heavy, get a solid diet (diet is key and should always be factored first for weight loss) and get some running shoes. There are plenty of stickies in the diet section on how to figure your BMR. Get that figured out and go from there, there is no magic way to drop lbs. Your looking to drop 100lbs (I say75lbs tops) that's going to take time and dedication and it won't be easy.

[halivingston]

The main goal is to get ripped but NOT bulk up. I'm hoping to get an answer on that one with regards to weights. If doing weights will bulk me up, I'm going to only do cardio, but as I remember it, the process was too slow.

[iVortex]

If and only if losing weight is your only goal and gaining muscle isn't important to you, then you don't need to lift weights.

All you need to do is read the stickies on macro nutrients & calorie deficits, and do cardio as a bonus.

Start by making a calorie deficit, lower the calories, the more weight you will lose, too low, and the more mental capacity you will lose.

Make sure you eat lots and lots of protein, this is very important for losing fat. It will help you maintain the muscle you have so that you'll be able to stand up and get out of bed in the morning, and it will also cure a lot of carb cravings (whey protein reccommended)

Thats how you lose weight. Change the numbers, change the progress.

as an added bonus, you can do cardio by either jogging for an hour to burn X amount of calories, or performing HIIT, which, an example would be, sprinting for 2 minutes, walking for a minute, repeat, repeat. This will also burn X amount of calories but in half the time or less. (You'll get sick and tired of jogging for an hour every day)

Lifting weights is also good to do in your spare time, it only takes 10 minutes to do 5 sets of 5 reps on the benchpress every few days, and it'll go a long way to help your progress.


Hope it all works out for you! I wish you the best of luck! I've lost a lot of weight myself, 25lbs in 2 1/2 months to be exact.

edit: when cardio gets boring, take a few days off it, and lower your calorie intake, proceed to live life and maybe to a little weight lifting. You'll lose a lot of weight just by eating at certain calories, but definitely get back to doing cardio as soon as you're ready again.

[LengthyLifter]

Your fear of bulking up from lifting weights is unfounded. The reason you got big is because you overate. If you lift weights while eating fewer calories than it takes to maintain your weight, you will lose fat, get smaller, and look better. Diet is the key.

[halivingston]

Ok. Some trainer told me that lifting weights (heavier) is used for bulking up, and instead I should do cardio, and potentially lighter weights to lean myself out. I'm happy to be informed otherwise.

Your fear of bulking up from lifting weights is unfounded. The reason you got big is because you overate. If you lift weights while eating fewer calories than it takes to maintain your weight, you will lose fat, get smaller, and look better. Diet is the key.

[LengthyLifter]

Ok. Some trainer told me that lifting weights (heavier) is used for bulking up, and instead I should do cardio, and potentially lighter weights to lean myself out. I'm happy to be informed otherwise.

If that's what he told you, he's a complete idiot. It's impossible to bulk up while eating at a caloric deficit. An untrained fat person has very little muscle underneath all that fat. You're going to want to maintain as much of the muscle you have as possible.

Get your diet straightened out and you'll lose the fat. Get started lifting weights and you won't look like sh!t once you've dropped the fat.

[tank316]

Yes, lift weights, you wont get bulky. Get your diet in order, and be prepared for cardio.
Do a search on pros and cons to weight lifting. You WON'T find to many cons. You'll also find a lot of sites debunking the myths.

[nellyg619]

u absolutely have to lift weights and lift heavy and keep lifting and increasing. This is ur best weapon against the fat along with creating a calorie deficit as you keep the muscle mass u do have which helps keeps your metabolic rate. Educate urself as much as possible and im an advocate of eating clean, as i personally feel u r what u eat and ull get better results but ur main point is to create a deficit and count evrything as well!! also while i understand breaking up wit a girl can be painful do this for urself, not for her as u mite just fall off the wagon if things dont go the way u want and hu knows this new lifestyle and new u cud attract someone even better