Started losing weight, I have some questions

[Clarke001]

My current weight is 99kg (218 lbs) and I have a BMI of 32, which is obese. I went through some trauma so I have gained a lot of weight very fast (within the last year), my stretch marks were relatively recent went I started workout at 108 kg. I got myself a treadmill and start out with 30 minutes of cardio a day. I was skipping a lot of days and I didn't like it but after christmas I decided to be strict and do at least three 30 minute cardio sessions on the treadmill. I stick to this so my daily average is 7.5 miles a day (12km). I also went on a 1000-1500 calorie diet, but I am mostly close to 1000 since I am eating a lot of soup.

So, my questions:
1) Doing 90 minutes of cardio a day until I achieve a healthy BMI, and a 1500 calorie diet (with no fast food, soda and such). Would I be able to drop 6-7 pounds a month? So far I managed to drop over 3 pounds in the first week, but I expect that to drop.
2) I have man boobs, yes... pretty unfortunate and won't help with dating either. I never had man boobs before. Will they shrink during exercise or I will have to get some muscle to hide it? I plan to go to the gym to build a healthier body when I am done losing health and move back to the city. (at the moment there is not a single gym within a hour so my treadmill is the only thing I have)
3) I have already lost over 20 pounds since I began losing weight 3 months ago but only lost about an inch. Am I doing something wrong?

I appreciate any suggestion you may have.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Forgot to mention that I doing high intensity cardio.

[Bastiat]

You need to look over the stickies in this section as well as the nutrition section. Particularly these 2
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=136691851
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=156380183

Losing weight is about a calorie deficit, you have started that part, but you are going overboard.

Your body uses a certain number of calories just to maintain itself. By that, I mean simply to replace cells, replace skin, organs, maintain muscle tissue and accomplish general functionality like a heart beat, mental actions, breathing etc. This is your Basal Metabolic rate (BMR). A male at 200+ lbs is going to have a BMR higher than 1000cal/day. Thus you should easily be eating more than 1000 and probably more than 1500 just to have a healthy diet.

Out of curiosity I used http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/ca...ned-calculator to see what you might burn with all that cardio and it is around 1000 cals. This means you are leaving your body absolutely nothing to maintain itself. This isnt a good thing. In fact its very unhealthy.

Really, you need to check the stickies and completely reevaluate your plan.

Someone will probably pop in here with a nice cut/paste shortened version of how to create a plan, but I would, again, very much advise looking over the stickies, create yourself a plan based on them and come back with some specific questions. I know that that might come across as harsh, but your current plan is not only unsustainable as a long term lifestyle but it is not healthy at all.

As a side note, you mention how much you dont like cardio. Me neither. Using the information provided in those stickies and others between this and the nutrition section, I was able to create a plan that resulted in 105lbs lost in a bit over 10 months without doing a minute of cardio.

[Clarke001]

You need to look over the stickies in this section as well as the nutrition section. Particularly these 2

***

Losing weight is about a calorie deficit, you have started that part, but you are going overboard.

Your body uses a certain number of calories just to maintain itself. By that, I mean simply to replace cells, replace skin, organs, maintain muscle tissue and accomplish general functionality like a heart beat, mental actions, breathing etc. This is your Basal Metabolic rate (BMR). A male at 200+ lbs is going to have a BMR higher than 1000cal/day. Thus you should easily be eating more than 1000 and probably more than 1500 just to have a healthy diet.

Out of curiosity I used *** to see what you might burn with all that cardio and it is around 1000 cals. This means you are leaving your body absolutely nothing to maintain itself. This isnt a good thing. In fact its very unhealthy.

Really, you need to check the stickies and completely reevaluate your plan.

Someone will probably pop in here with a nice cut/paste shortened version of how to create a plan, but I would, again, very much advise looking over the stickies, create yourself a plan based on them and come back with some specific questions. I know that that might come across as harsh, but your current plan is not only unsustainable as a long term lifestyle but it is not healthy at all.

As a side note, you mention how much you dont like cardio. Me neither. Using the information provided in those stickies and others between this and the nutrition section, I was able to create a plan that resulted in 105lbs lost in a bit over 10 months without doing a minute of cardio.

Thank you for your suggestion. No it isn't harsh at all, I am new to fitness and maintained a healthy weight by not eating too much until a trauma. Thank you for the suggestions, I will go through them. My fear is that I won't evaluate the nutritional value of the stuff I eat correctly go over the cap. I indeed have headaches and I don't feel good, hence I was asking the question since I am doing something wrong.

I do like cardio, you misunderstood my sentence due to the lack of coma, I didn't like the fact that I was often skipping cardio. I like running in general, but I suck at coming up with a correct diet plan, especially since the vegetables I can buy in supermarkets don't even resemble the real thing.

[Bastiat]

Thank you for your suggestion. No it isn't harsh at all, I am new to fitness and maintained a healthy weight by not eating too much until a trauma. Thank you for the suggestions, I will go through them. My fear is that I won't evaluate the nutritional value of the stuff I eat correctly go over the cap. I indeed have headaches and I don't feel good, hence I was asking the question since I am doing something wrong.

I do like cardio, you misunderstood my sentence due to the lack of coma, I didn't like the fact that I was often skipping cardio. I like running in general, but I suck at coming up with a correct diet plan, especially since the vegetables I can buy in supermarkets don't even resemble the real thing.

Ahh ok, thats good though, cardio is good for you, i just dont like it myself .

My guess is your not feeling well is due to eating too little especially with all that cardio. In fact, after you read those posts and calculate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) I would actually advise eating at your maintenance level for a week or so and then dropping your calories down about 200/wk to your cut level.

For counting calories, you need a kitchen scale and the myfitnesspal phone/internet app. One of those stickies probably has a download link. You will likely see that a sustainable "diet plan" is not what alot of people think. Its not a set schedule where I must eat these 4 things every day for the rest of my life. Its about proteins and fats which you can get from a variety of sources. Once you start logging things using the app and have a nice list of things you frequently eat, its very fast to log things in to see how much you have eaten. if you focus on food items that have lower calories/volume, its not too hard to eat a decent amout of food while staying on your daily calorie level.

[Odines]

Thank you for your suggestion. No it isn't harsh at all, I am new to fitness and maintained a healthy weight by not eating too much until a trauma. Thank you for the suggestions, I will go through them. My fear is that I won't evaluate the nutritional value of the stuff I eat correctly go over the cap. I indeed have headaches and I don't feel good, hence I was asking the question since I am doing something wrong.

I do like cardio, you misunderstood my sentence due to the lack of coma, I didn't like the fact that I was often skipping cardio. I like running in general, but I suck at coming up with a correct diet plan, especially since the vegetables I can buy in supermarkets don't even resemble the real thing.

I would add in, or swap out some cardio for full body weight training. It doesn't have to be intense, but the results will be significant during your cut if you haven't been a lifter before. Based on what you wrote this is for appearance and likely health. Appearance has to do with signicant muscle. There's no reason not to add weight training, muscle burns more calories, etc. I personally like cardio as well. When i did this years ago, even though I weight trained (not as heavy as I should have) I ran so much I ended up being a twig. A fit twig cause of the weight lifting I did do, but still a twig.

Just my opinion, but people tend to underestimate how much weight training assists in weight loss and believe cardio is the end all be all for fat loss. Find an easy program (SL 5x5 for example) that doesn't take up much of your time, and just do it before one of your cardio sessions, you'll feel better and can get away with 2x per week. We're close to the same weight tho I've lowered my BF% nearly 5% this last month. You should not go any lower than 1500/1600 calories a day (thats counted after calculating in Cardio). Also be sure to round down in cardio. If the machine says 400, tally 300. It'll help keep things accurate as cardio tends to be off, especially as you get more fit and your body can handle it.

If you decide to do weight training, you'll need to add some protein (at least 1g per kg). It'll help keep you full, and you shouldn't fear eating anyway. At your body weight, you can eat 2k give or take 2-300 cals and still lose weight. The 1500/1600 would put you at 1k+ deficit. My target cals (after workout/cardio factor) is actually 1800. I sometimes dip lower depending on hunger/activity, but I strive to eat at least that and realistically I've shed well over 10 lbs of fat in the last month.

My point, before I get too long winded here. If you're doing HIIT, you need to at least hit 1500 cals, and closer to 1800 would be ideal. You shouldn't feel sick, dizzy, exhausted, weak, etc when cutting. In fact, your energy should be heightened throughout the day.

[Clarke001]

Ahh ok, thats good though, cardio is good for you, i just dont like it myself .

My guess is your not feeling well is due to eating too little especially with all that cardio. In fact, after you read those posts and calculate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) I would actually advise eating at your maintenance level for a week or so and then dropping your calories down about 200/wk to your cut level.

For counting calories, you need a kitchen scale and the myfitnesspal phone/internet app. One of those stickies probably has a download link. You will likely see that a sustainable "diet plan" is not what alot of people think. Its not a set schedule where I must eat these 4 things every day for the rest of my life. Its about proteins and fats which you can get from a variety of sources. Once you start logging things using the app and have a nice list of things you frequently eat, its very fast to log things in to see how much you have eaten. if you focus on food items that have lower calories/volume, its not too hard to eat a decent amout of food while staying on your daily calorie level.

I haven't had time to go through the stickies, I will do it after work.

The problem is that I had to move back to my parents so my mom is the one cooking so it is usually her recipe - its hard to calculate calories that's why I tend to round way up. For example I start my breakfast with fiststicks, 4 of them to be exact, with bread that is about 400 calories. I usually eat below 1000 calories for lunch and that's it, no snacks. Sometimes a bit of 1% fat milk. I should probably rethink my breakfast - but in a small town we are really lacking quality ingredients. I could afford mostly any food.

Your weight loss is very impressive, I hope to get there someday.

[Clarke001]

I would add in, or swap out some cardio for full body weight training. It doesn't have to be intense, but the results will be significant during your cut if you haven't been a lifter before. Based on what you wrote this is for appearance and likely health. Appearance has to do with signicant muscle. There's no reason not to add weight training, muscle burns more calories, etc. I personally like cardio as well. When i did this years ago, even though I weight trained (not as heavy as I should have) I ran so much I ended up being a twig. A fit twig cause of the weight lifting I did do, but still a twig.

Just my opinion, but people tend to underestimate how much weight training assists in weight loss and believe cardio is the end all be all for fat loss. Find an easy program (SL 5x5 for example) that doesn't take up much of your time, and just do it before one of your cardio sessions, you'll feel better and can get away with 2x per week. We're close to the same weight tho I've lowered my BF% nearly 5% this last month. You should not go any lower than 1500/1600 calories a day (thats counted after calculating in Cardio). Also be sure to round down in cardio. If the machine says 400, tally 300. It'll help keep things accurate as cardio tends to be off, especially as you get more fit and your body can handle it.

If you decide to do weight training, you'll need to add some protein (at least 1g per kg). It'll help keep you full, and you shouldn't fear eating anyway. At your body weight, you can eat 2k give or take 2-300 cals and still lose weight. The 1500/1600 would put you at 1k+ deficit. My target cals (after workout/cardio factor) is actually 1800. I sometimes dip lower depending on hunger/activity, but I strive to eat at least that and realistically I've shed well over 10 lbs of fat in the last month.

My point, before I get too long winded here. If you're doing HIIT, you need to at least hit 1500 cals, and closer to 1800 would be ideal. You shouldn't feel sick, dizzy, exhausted, weak, etc when cutting. In fact, your energy should be heightened throughout the day.

Yes, this is for appearance and health. I nearly had a heart attack when I was 20 lbs heavier and that opened my eyes, but now I need to get fit to start dating again. (I am not fooling anyone, I don't like the way I look) I never lifted and I don't have access to a gym either. At the moment the best I could would be buying weights and doing exercise before and after workout. I am self employed and working from home so time is not an issue, if it would benefit my health I wouldn't mind doing it for hours even.

I was looking into home training, but I decided not to because I still have a lot of body fat to lose and cardio burns muscle (i can already feel it), and I could only get the most basic equipment (weights?), can't train outside during winter.

I am feeling very dizzy, since I lost weight I am feeling better but my head hurts several times a day. Obviously, I am doing something wrong because I am only counting calorie intake and go for extreme, which isn't always the best.

If you have any suggestions for a home gym I would really appreciate that. Please note that due to my weight I don't think I can do regular gym exercises, but weights could work I guess.

Thank you for your time.

[Odines]

Yes, this is for appearance and health. I nearly had a heart attack when I was 20 lbs heavier and that opened my eyes, but now I need to get fit to start dating again. (I am not fooling anyone, I don't like the way I look) I never lifted and I don't have access to a gym either. At the moment the best I could would be buying weights and doing exercise before and after workout. I am self employed and working from home so time is not an issue, if it would benefit my health I wouldn't mind doing it for hours even.

I was looking into home training, but I decided not to because I still have a lot of body fat to lose and cardio burns muscle (i can already feel it), and I could only get the most basic equipment (weights?), can't train outside during winter.

I am feeling very dizzy, since I lost weight I am feeling better but my head hurts several times a day. Obviously, I am doing something wrong because I am only counting calorie intake and go for extreme, which isn't always the best.

If you have any suggestions for a home gym I would really appreciate that. Please note that due to my weight I don't think I can do regular gym exercises, but weights could work I guess.

Thank you for your time.

Any weight training is still weight training. Even if you're just doing push ups, pull ups, etc. I'm tellin ya, you're probably lacking nutrition and calories. If you gave me an example of a few days of eating that you can recall I could point out the weaknesses.

Also, if you aren't, start taking a daily vitamin, that will help (it's not a fix, just will help).

As far as weight training, it is 100% worth it. If you're willing to buy some weights, without knowing your budget you could buy a little bit at a time, which is what I did (also self employed) and now I could open my own gym lol. You don't really need all that many.

Especially for SL 5x5. You basically just need a rack, an olympic bar, and enough weights to get you started. Probably could get it all < 300$.

If you don't want to do a program like that, you could get a bench (cheap) and a dumb bell set and basically be able to do everything you need as well. I'll see if I can find something online. In the meantime, post me what a daily food diary looks like in your world.

[MrM27]

You're worried about weight training and cardio when in reality what you should be worried about is the horrible diet you're on. You need to get that straightened out and start eating real food. Fish stick sandwich and seat is not going to cut it. Go read the stickys.