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wunderbar
New Member
| Joined: | 6 October 2009 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: 7 October 2009 05:14 am |
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So I've been working out since the beginning of this year and didn't get serious about it until August. I'm 5'8, 23 years old and at the beginning of the year I was 230 pounds. Until August I only lost 20 pounds due to not following a stable diet but exercising at the gym 3-5 days a week for only about 40-50 minutes. In the month of August with a new job I lost ten pounds admittedly by not eating much due to my hours and going to the gym 4-5 days a week and working out for 50 minutes.
So in the month of september I trieda new diet which I did not seem to 'perfect' til now. Last month I lost 9 more pounds so I'm down to 191 pounds now.
I went on the calculator on this site and it calculated that if I want to lose 2 pounds a week for my age, height and current weight and current workout plan (which I'll state below) I need to maintain around 2300 calories a day (last month it was 2500 since I was 10 pounds heavier)
I've been doing good on getting the 2300 in fact I get between 2000-2300 calories a day and I've upped my exercising routine (2 times a day but I'll go into specifics below).
So here's my diet and I need to know if I'm doing good considering my amount of activity or if I'm not doing good i.e. need to eat more/less, cut out certian foods etc so here it is:
FACTS:
23 years old
5'8
193 lbs
Exercise routine: Gym 4-5 days a week(50 min - 1 hour), calisthenics 7 days a week (20-30 min)
MY DIET:
BREAKFAST:
Usually a half cup of plain oatmeal mixed with hot water, a half tablespoon of brown sugar, sprinkle of cinnamon. 2-3 eggs, 2 if I boil them, 3 if I scramble, I usually almost always have 2 though
Generally about an hour later I do my calisthenics. I do about 3 or 4 different exercises and try not to take long breaks inbetween to do it as fast a possible. My exercises: Jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers, leg flutters, oblique crunches and/or push ups
LUNCH
I usually have lunch right after this consists of a ham and reduced fat swiss cheese sandwich on whole grain bread with no condiments. I have a bowl of veggies with it consisting of carrot sticks, broccoli and baby tomatos followed by sometimes a banana I have now also started to take one fish oil pill with my lunch
I go to the gym an hour later. I do my one hour routine there by doing 35-40 min of cardio and 20-25 minutes of lifting
POST WORKOUT
One can of tuna in water and plain greek yogurt with a little honey mixed in or a slice of whole grain bread with one tablespoon peanut butter and greek yogurt with honey
DINNER
Usually some sort of chicken dish with veggies and either brown rice or potatoes.
Good?
After all of this I average 2000-2300 calories a day, sometimes I'll have fish for dinner instead of chicken
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wunderbar
New Member
| Joined: | 6 October 2009 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: 7 October 2009 05:18 am |
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P.S. I also want to know if the calisthenics, cardio and eating are enough in burning stomach fat and love handles, they're the hardest part for me to lose!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 9 October 2009 07:06 am |
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Fantastic start getting from obese to overweight.
First thing to say is to take some of the calculations below with a pinch of salt because at the end of the day if what you are doing is currently working there is no need to change it, but keep it in mind in case results begin to slow down or stop entirely either now or a while later.
You didn't state but I am assuming your are male. At 191lb, your BMI is 29. Your unadjusted RMR is 1836. Your activities are probably burning somewhere in the range 2525-2846, so eating at 2000-2300 I am actually surprised that you managed to lose 2lb/week so far (I would have expected less) (but again, if it is working don't fix it!). If it stops working you have some room to manouvre for example to take calories down to around 1800.
The great thing about your exercise program is that you're doing it, and that you're doing it for enough minutes for it to burn calories. You have not detailed your weights regime generally speaking the most common mistake people make is to target the same muscle group on consecutive days, if you target your chest one day you should rest it the following day whilst working on something else etc.
Food: my opinion is going to be coloured by my current thinking, different people will have different opinions. Great that you're including veggies (where are the fruit and legumes?) and whole-grain choices. Honey and brown sugar are still just empty calories just so you know (but on the flip side if you use artificial sweetners like me you could be gambling with your health - having a sweet tooth is a curse); if you're going to use eggs I'd throw away the yolks (which have the saturated fat and the cholesterol); fish and chicken used to be favourites of mine but now they're almost entirely gone from my menus so that would be my next comment. If you're keen to improve your health then do more reading (on this site we recommend the book Eat To Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman) anyhow this paragraph is all about health rather than weight loss - you can lose fat on cheesecake so long as you eat the right number of calories.
As you lose weight it will come off from all places and the specific order isn't for you to determine but the end result will be that you will lose your love handles and belly when you get lean enough, so keep at it.
Any questions, let me know
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wunderbar
New Member
| Joined: | 6 October 2009 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: 9 October 2009 08:28 am |
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Thanks for the response Nir! here's my weight lifting regime, I alternate lower and upper body every other day for the five days I go to the gym.
If I do upper body I take a 35 lb weight and with both arms I hold it straight down in front of me then raise it to my chest, I do 60-100 total in sets of 10-15 whatever will even out to 60-100 in total.
Then I do bicep curls with 30 lbs of weight total. I'll do 50 total in sets of 10.
I do a weight machine where you sit and push the weight forward with both your arms. I do the one where you put the weights on yourself and I do 70 pounds for each arm at the same time. I do only about 20-30 in sets of 10
All that adds to about 20-25 minutes
If I do lower body:
I only really only use the nordictrack machines. I do the one where you sit and spread your legs outwards while pushing weight. I can push 170 lbs on the machine spreading out and about 60 in sets of 15. There's also the reverse side where you push your legs in, I can do 50 lbs and only do about 30 in sets 10. Then I do the machine where you sit and push weight with both of your legs. I can do 225 lbs and do 50 total in sets of 10. Usually takes up 20 minutes.
P.S. I am male and also for the past 2-3 days I've actually been getting around 1700-1800 calories by coincidence (busy schedule). Will this give me more of a shot at losing 2 lbs a week?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 October 2009 02:50 am |
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As I said above, theoretically yes, but then if what you've been doing before was right for you then eating less might not be ideal (because it might slow down your metabolism) you need to follow real-world results.
My comments about your lifting regime: the main muscle groups are legs (especially quads, hamstrings, calves), chest, back, triceps, biceps, deltoids, abdominals
For the upper body unless I have misunderstood you, there are no movements to target the back (like a Lat Pulldown or an Upright Row, at very least a reverse-bridge) If you're working your chest, the back is the opposite muscle so it needs to be worked to prevent a muscle imbalance.
For the lower body, you are focusing on minor muscles (abductors and adductors) whilst neglecting your quads and hamstrings (think about Squats, Lunges, leg press machine, leg curl machine etc.)
lots of free information on exercise on the net, for example http://www.exrx.net
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wunderbar
New Member
| Joined: | 6 October 2009 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: 22 October 2009 04:02 am |
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I've started working in baked potatoes into my diet now with nonfat cottage cheese to get flavor and the protein. So here is an idea of what my idea looks like now:
Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal mixed with 1/2 cup 2% milk and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. 3 scrambled eggs cooked with olive oil and 4 small slices of canadian bacon
That alone is usually around 500 calories so I assume I'm getting a good start
I always do calisthenics an hour afterwords now for no less than 30 minutes. I started working in pilates just for my stomach, I know perfectly well that abs exercises don't really burn stomach fat but I figured it's not a bad thing to get started on building some ab muscles before I shed all the stomach fat. I usually do around 300-500 mountain climbers mixed in with burpees, ab exercises and if I'm doing lower body I do lunges and if I do upper body I mi in push ups.
For lunch I have my baked potato with cottage cheese and two slices of ham nad veggies this totals to around 600 calories. An hour later I go to the gym.
For post workout I eat greek yogurt with very little honey and either a can of tuna OR a piece of whole grain bread with peanut butter this usually totals out to 200-300 calories.
By this time I usually have had 1400 calories by the time I reach dinner. I snack on fruit inbetween but I don'tsnack much anyways.
For dinner I'll have a chicken breast and veggies usually around 300-400 calories total. So Currently overall I'm getting around 1800-2200 calories a day.
Are my eating habits alright? is the potato a bad idea? i hear it's not, then I hear it is, then not... :)
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 22 October 2009 01:50 pm |
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personally I like baked potatos.
starchy veggies do have their place in the heirarchy:
green veggies
non-green veggies
legumes
fruit
starchy veggies <----------
whole-grains
low-fat dairy
fish
meat
some people berate them for having a high glycemic index, others consider this fact to be somewhat irrelevant (unless you're a diabetic)
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