Plenty to Lose

Welcome to the club, Kingpatzer! Getting started and establishing a new habit (exercise) is the toughest part.
What do they say on the tv commercial? "You can do it. We can help." :D Since you already make healthy food choices, you've got a leg up. You don't have to develop new tastes, just spoon up a little less onto the plate.

Off He Goes wrote:
Phase One, is great for losing weight...... It is a pretty brutal workout
OK, I know I asked for a kick in the pants, but you mean now I gotta do some WORK?! :lol:
Mike wrote:
You can do a bunch of great exercises with that ball.
Yes, I have been doing some of the body ball exercises. They DO work. I need to be more consistent in doing them.

Slej, great job on the long bike ride! And Happy B'day a little early! You're cresting the hill and will be coming down the other side to join a bunch of us already here. 8)

Margaret

For those trying to burn the fat away, what about combining a fat burning liquid and joining a spinning club, everytime i walk past those guys i cringe - that's an intense cardio workout.

I'm on the oppiste of the scale i'm 6ft2 was at 165lbs now 210lbs. My goal is to get to about 225 then re-evaluate when i get there.

Minus Human

Minus Human wrote: .... a spinning club, everytime i walk past those guys i cringe - that's an intense cardio workout.

MH--I don't know much about spinning. Is it basically a group workout on stationary bikes?

Margaret

Yes basically, you have your instructor pushing you along going at various speeds peddling forwards and backwards.
That's putting it really basic.
But it's high tempo and at times I've seen even the instructor red faced almost falling of his bike – lol

Minus

For those trying to burn the fat away, what about combining a fat burning liquid and joining a spinning club, everytime i walk past those guys i cringe - that's an intense cardio workout.

I'm on the oppiste of the scale i'm 6ft2 was at 165lbs now 210lbs. My goal is to get to about 225 then re-evaluate when i get there.

Minus Human

That spinning does sound press intense, but cardio never really was my cup of tea. I usually just swim, or run or play some sport for my cardio.

I'm in a similar situation to you though, trying to gain. 5'8 or 9, 155lbs, trying to get to 165lbs.

Yeah it's not easy for some people me included, you gotta eat allot about 5/6 meals a day but as healty as you can. On one day during the week you have a "cheat day" where you eat what you like.

Minus

Tell me about it, I've gained 15lbs in the last year, but it's still little compared to where I'd like to be. But I've seen decent strenght gains, and muscle gains. Still got punie little arms though.

With your diet you have to take in allot of good quality protein. Tuna is high in protein meat and other fish for example.
This should be a good starting point.
If you want to build muscle then a high protein diet is the way to go.

you also have to look at essential fatty acids like avocado and peanut butter - good fat - you can get a supplement for this.
I have a complete diet lying around somewhere that a dietitian gave me. I'll have look if I can find it and write it up.

When working our your arms don't burn them out every time you go to the gym, leave about 3 days rest before you start hitting them again. Otherwise you're not giving the muscle time to heal.
I would try to get my hands on a product called Glutamine you should be able to get it at your local pharmacy (it's not harmful at all) it helps your muscle recover after exercise and works really well.

Don't just exercise your biceps – do them – but your triceps are the muscles that fill sleeves.

Glose grip tricep pushdowns
Skull crushers
Close grip bench press
Dips
One arm tricep pushdowns

You don't have to do all of them at one go mix it up, try and do 3 to 4 exercises per muscle group.

HTH

Minus

I'd be interested in that diet if you could put up some examples.

I'm actually doing a 3x week full body workout. That way I can hit all the major muscles and still get at least a whole days rest inbetween, which is perfect because I have a pretty easy job this summer that doesn't invovled any physical work. I'm a big fan of dips and close grip pushdowns, I've found good results with them.

can't seem to find it will keep looking...

Minus

Thanks, no need to bother yourself over it though, if you can find it, that's cool, if not, that's cool too.

Paul

Okay got it..

Hope this can help someone else aswell.

One of the biggest mistakes I've seen in dieting, especially in those trying to lose fat, is the theory that “eat less and you will get thin”. To a certain extent this is true since if you don't eat your body will use muscle and fat as a fuel source.
Your body's first goal is to protect it's internal organs, to function they need energy, if your body's not used to eating regularly it will store fat as an emergency fuel source, just incase you don't feed it and give it the energy it needs.
If you get into a habit of eating regularly your body will not need to store an emergency fuel source as it knows that it will be given the energy it needs. Also eating fewer meals forces your body to slow down its metabolism so that the food it's given last for longer periods of time.

A slow metabolism is not what where aiming for!

Think of your metabolism like a fire, the more coal you put in the bigger the fire gets.

With this in mind try to fit in about 5 meals a day, this should work out to a meal every 2-3 hours

Putting it all together

Meal Protein Carbs Fat Vegetables
Breakfast 1 1
Mid Morning Snack 1 1
Lunch 1 1 1 1
Mid Afternoon Snack 1 1
Dinner 1 1 1 1

You will need to fit a plan that meets your own personal schedule. Taking breakfast as an example: One day you can look at your food list and use cottage cheese as your protein and whole wheat bread as your carb. Maybe on the next day you have run out of cottage cheese so you select egg whites as your protein with oats as your carb. Now you can see how important a “good food list” is.
This helps for eating out too, for example a fillet steak is your protein, with a baked potato as your carb. Not perfect but better that a cheese melt!

Remember that when creating your own meal plan that food is always the best option. Supplements are useful, but food is always better. For those struggling to eat so much food, a good meal replacement is an okay alternative; just make sure your solid meals out number your supplement meals.

A sample plan with a meal replacement included.

Meal
Breakfast Egg white omelet on toast
Mid Morning Snack Meal replacement shake
Lunch Chicken pasta salad with almonds and green beans
Mid Afternoon Snack Meal replacement shake
Dinner Grilled sole with baked potato with broccoli and avocado

Supplements

The nutritional supplement market has grown into a multibillion rand industry over the last few years. There is just about something available for everything. Supplements serve their purpose and can enhance a good diet, not replace it. Remember that they are called s-u-p-p-l-e-m-e-n-t-s, not replacements. Food is always a better option. That said if you already have a good eating plan you're supplements will work 100% better. I've always said you get about 5% of the value of the supplement if you're diets not in check 1st.

So which ones work? Most supplements work, given the correct situation, the key is to try them and find which ones work for you. I consider the following as basics and the rest as useful luxuries.

• A good multivitamin – Everyone should be on these. If you're under stress (most of us are in this day and age) you need a multivitamin.
• Glutamine – everything boils down to recovery, the quicker you recover the quicker you can further your progress. Glutamine is good for this and helps pump up the immune system too.
• Essential fatty Acids – There are a multitude of health benefits to taking EFA's including fighting fatigue, depression and infection.
• A Multi mineral – This is almost essential and will provide you with things like Zinc and Calcium.

If you're training I would add a good whey protein to this list. If you're dieting for fat loss, I would add CLA and some kind of fat Burner.

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That's It hope that helps

Rudi

Thanks Minus! Turns out I'm doing a lot right. I need to start working on some foods for work. I got a summer job that is mostly 7pm-12am. I always eat when I get home, but I don't want to get stuck eating junk food while I'm there, which is hard, because I work the counter at a youth center. I'm going to try some lean chicken and turkey for sandwhiches, with some whole wheat bread, and some other good foods, maybe some nuts and fruit.

I'm going to look at some supplements. I use to take a good multi-vitamin everyday, but I might start gluatime to, as working nights makes it hard to recover quickly, and I usually am out and about in the day, swimming, or at the driving range with my friend.

Thanks again! I'm going to save that to my desktop.

Paul

Yeah, gloat now, dude. I used to be 6'3" and 155 pounds. It'll catch up with you, too.

Ever think about how we tend to not appreciate our looks/physique until we've lost them?

Whether it's thinking we're too fat or too skinny or not attractive enough, then we get older and look back at photos of the younger days and wish we had the looks we had (and didn't appreciate at the time) back.

Perspective is everything. It's all relative. :wink:

Margaret