Decided to lose weight

WellyJ

On a bit of a whim yesterday I decided it was time to drop weight,

I'm 6'2" and i weigh 266 pounds so I am very overweight.

My diet is awful,

I work 9-6 Mon-Fri sitting at a computer and I know this is a pretty bad lifestyle.

Usually I miss breakfast because I am up late and get to work with an empty stomach.

Then I feel really really hungry as a result around 10 and will get something from the vending machine. Chocolate or crisps.

This is of course AWFUL for me but fills a gap.

At lunch I would get potato wedges and chicken in a roll with butter or maybe go to the chipper and get a burger and chips. AWFUL again.

Then in the afternoon I would probably get another bar or 2 from the machine.

For dinner when I get home around 7 I would either order something from the chinese or pick at crap from the press like crisps or make a peanut butter sandwich or something.

Ok so if you are still reading, I know how awful all the above is and I cannot continue like this.

So this morning I Got up a bit earlier than usual and had a probiotic yoghurt,

Got a fruit pack from M&S at lunch. With apple orange melon watermelon kiwi pineapple.

Horsed that into me

Have been drinking water all day (always drink plenty of this)

And now as it gets to half 4 I must admit I am really peckish.

I refuse to go near the machine though. I have decided to get rid of those habits.

Ok so now I have taken this first step, basically I would like some input.

Long term goal would be to drop to around 15 stone maybe. I have good willpower once I know that the eating plan will work.

Any advice on what I could eat that is good for me but is also filling so i don't have this awful feeling mid afternoon that i want to eat again?

Ok well thats it,

Any advice welcome

WellyJ

tribulus

Best bet is to read through the nutrition stickies at the top of the forum page. Loads of advice in there about good sources of carbs, fat etc. when to eat what and so on.

Have a good read of that then come up with an eating plan from it, post it up as well as any other questions that weren't answered in the stickies.

rubadub

WellyJ wrote:

So this morning I Got up a bit earlier than usual and had a probiotic yoghurt,

How much earlier? I would eat one in a minute. You can prepare breakfast the night before. I eat cold porridge oats & milk, takes 2 mins to prepare & eat. Bring lunches in with you in controlled portion sizes, get a decent scales and learn how to count calories. You will save a lot of money too, vending machines are dear, I expect ready to eat M&S fruit is too.

There is no mention of exercise in your post. At the least I would do 2-3 full body workouts with heavy weights per week. A set can be got for €80 in argos, lifting heavy will help the fat fall off you.

WellyJ

Ok using the guide posted by G'em i would need to be eating a mere 3091 calories a day to lose weight,

But I am sure I could get by on 2500 in a day.

I love porridge so I guess that would be a good start, if i had that in the mornings i'm guessing it would be healthy and also fill me enough to get me to lunch?

You are right about the exercise, since starting this job and moving from my family home I pretty much get NO exercise whatsoever.

I had to leave my weights bench and punchbag at home wont fit in the apartment.

I could join a gym there is one near enough, a Jackie Skelly

People have told me that it's better to not lift while losing weight and once you have got to the weight you are happy with to then pursue weight training if you want to. Would you disagree with that?

One thing I dont get is, for the past year or so my weight has been pretty stable, not gaining or losing despite my awful diet.

Does this mean it will be tougher for me to try to drop weight?

And does this mean that through luck or coincidence that I have been eating my exact Reccomended amount of calories for my height/weight and as a result havent gained or lost?

WellyJ

rubadub wrote:

There is no mention of exercise in your post. At the least I would do 2-3 full body workouts with heavy weights per week. A set can be got for €80 in argos, lifting heavy will help the fat fall off you.

Would cardio not be better to start with? I would get better results right?

g'em

WellyJ wrote:

Ok using the guide posted by G'em i would need to be eating a mere 3091 calories a day to lose weight,

Let's just say it's "around" 3000 calories - don't get hung up on numbers.

WellyJ wrote:

But I am sure I could get by on 2500 in a day.

You could, but it won't help you lose weight. Too big a deficit will cause you to hang onto fat (it's energy-rich) not lose it.

I love porridge so I guess that would be a good start, if i had that in the mornings i'm guessing it would be healthy and also fill me enough to get me to lunch?

Porridge is wonderful, and snacking mid-morning is also wonderful. Yup, we encourage healthy snacking

You are right about the exercise, since starting this job and moving from my family home I pretty much get NO exercise whatsoever.

It doesn't have to be 'be all, end all'. A 45 minute walk 4 times a week is a start and better than what you're doing now.

I had to leave my weights bench and punchbag at home wont fit in the apartment.

Nothing to stop you doing bodyweight work!

I could join a gym there is one near enough, a Jackie Skelly

lets get you sorted with the diet first - it's the #1 tool for weight loss. The gym is important but no point in overwhelming yourself with pressure.

People have told me that it's better to not lift while losing weight and once you have got to the weight you are happy with to then pursue weight training if you want to. Would you disagree with that?

Completely disagree. Lifting increases muscle mass thereby increasing your metabolic rate, gives you energy, makes you look and feel great.

Lets be honest here: your diet SUCKS But this also means that the changes you make, no matter how small, will have huge benfits!!

You're going to need to radically overhaul your eating and exercise and it will take time. Don't use the word diet though, what you need to do is change your lifestyle. Sounds kinda scacry, I know, but it's actually not. One little change made every other day adds up to a lot of change in a very short space of time.

Eat breakfast every day. Being too lazy to get out of bed 5 minutes earlier than normal is no excuse

Make an effort to eat two pieces of fruit and three servings of veg every day. Sliced peppers, carrots, vegetable soup, greens with your dinner - these all count.

Keep water with you or at your desk and keep drinking it - 2-3L a day.

Walk!

Decide to implement one new change every two or three days and make a note of it. Keep doing this and enjoy those changes. The old saying rings true: Rome wasn't built in a day. I'd be concerned that trying to make too many changes all in one go would be grossly overwhelming to you. When you try and do something that radical inevitably you don't stick to it 100%, and we tend to focus ont he negatives.

But make a small change that you know you can stick to and instead you'll reap the benefits because you'll implement it with vigour. Good luck with it all

crotalus667

WellyJ wrote:

Would cardio not be better to start with? I would get better results right?

Trust me you need to do both ,high intensity cardio is essential for losing weight there‘s just no other way to move the fat quickly other than starving , you might want to do your lifting before the cardio recent studies have shown that people that do their cardio before lifting have 3 times lower levels of growth hormone than those that lift before cardio

Ps

I have been where you are and have gotten to where you want to be , ,if I can do it so can you

mack1

Yep - porridge would be a great start - I'm assuming you've read the stickies at this stage, so you know that skipping breakfast is a major no no - so make sure you don't revert to form.

As for it keeping you going til lunch - I would eat again before lunch. Read around, everywhere you'll see - 6 meals a day is the way to go (yes even when you're trying to lose weight). When losing weight on a non-gym day I would have 6 meals dropping carbs (except some veg) from my last 3 meals of the day and I find it works very well, so dont feel bad about having a lump of chicken or a can of tuna between breakfast & lunch (I always have a stack of tuna cans at my desk - much better than that vending machine!)

AS for exercise: rule 1: stop worrying about doing weights v cardio at the right time/weight and just get out there and do it - do something, anything! It's gonna be better than what you're doing now. But, for what it's worth, you should be doing a mix of cardio and weights (waiting til you've lost the weight is nonsense, lifting heavy will burn a tonne of kcals, get at it!)

Search for Transforms routine for beginners, it has the mix of cardio and weights that you need. Do this, eat right, drop any sugary food & drink and you'll be losing weight in no time!

best of luck!

rubadub

WellyJ wrote:

Would cardio not be better to start with? I would get better results right?

If you only exercised say 2 hours a week then the weights usually is better for fat loss. You burn around the same amount doing light cardio or heavy weights in 1 hour. But your body then uses maybe 300kcal every day of that week while making new muscle. Then your body uses extra calories every single day just to maintain that additional muscle.

Also cardio can be difficult and unsuitable if you are very overweight, maybe stick to low impact cardio like cycling.

If you do take up the weights you might lose fat and gain muscle at the same rate, so do not just keep an eye on your weight, take photos, measurements, body fat % if you can. I was the same weight for ages yet losing fat all the time, i.e. gaining muscle at the same slow rate.

Nothing to stop you doing bodyweight work!

Exaclty, you said you were aiming for 15 stone, so at the moment you are 56lb above that, you are already carrying a lot of extra weight, if you could do a few pushups at that weight I would be very impressed, you can lean on the stairs or wall to increase your angle if you have difficulty. Squats and pushups are great overall bodyworkouts.

Vegeta

mack1 wrote:

Yep - porridge would be a great start - I'm assuming you've read the stickies at this stage, so you know that skipping breakfast is a major no no - so make sure you don't revert to form.

As for it keeping you going til lunch - I would eat again before lunch. Read around, everywhere you'll see - 6 meals a day is the way to go (yes even when you're trying to lose weight). When losing weight on a non-gym day I would have 6 meals dropping carbs (except some veg) from my last 3 meals of the day and I find it works very well, so dont feel bad about having a lump of chicken or a can of tuna between breakfast & lunch (I always have a stack of tuna cans at my desk - much better than that vending machine!)

AS for exercise: rule 1: stop worrying about doing weights v cardio at the right time/weight and just get out there and do it - do something, anything! It's gonna be better than what you're doing now. But, for what it's worth, you should be doing a mix of cardio and weights (waiting til you've lost the weight is nonsense, lifting heavy will burn a tonne of kcals, get at it!)

Search for Transforms routine for beginners, it has the mix of cardio and weights that you need. Do this, eat right, drop any sugary food & drink and you'll be losing weight in no time!

best of luck!

very good summary here

for motivation chime in here every day and read peoples logs. I find them great to fire me up again if I am sick, injured or lazy and need a boot up the hole to get going again

could even start your own log to keep track of progress

WellyJ

rubadub wrote:

if you could do a few pushups at that weight I would be very impressed, you can lean on the stairs or wall to increase your angle if you have difficulty. Squats and pushups are great overall bodyworkouts.

Well I can certainly do some pushups yeh.

I am pretty strong considering my diet/lack of weight training,

I was working with pretty hard labour before this computer job there are some remnants of muscle left on my arms/shoulders/back/legs.

So you think that pushups, situps etc would be the best way for me to start off?

I guess that would provide cardio at the same time.

I like the whole using calories to rebuild/maintain muscle. It's not something I was aware of but seems to make great sense.

Cheeky_gal

WellyJ wrote:

I could join a gym there is one near enough, a Jackie Skelly

Jackie Skellies in town? Just for the advice, I was sooo close to joining there recently in the past month, they showed me around and all and made it sound amazing with the "Free" personal training and all this lark, like it is nice inside but not the cleanest and the money scams you hear about that place is true so I would stay well away from it!

If you are in town though...I'd defo recommend Crunch Fitness! Pretty much just up the road from Jackies! Amazing interior, and really friendly staff! Same price if not cheaper than Jackies too!

Also fair play on deciding to do something about it...thats the most important step and seems to me as though you've passed it so congrats!

rubadub

WellyJ wrote:

I was working with pretty hard labour before this computer job there are some remnants of muscle left on my arms/shoulders/back/legs.

Well that is good, so the excess weight is not probaly not just purely fat, which also means you metabolism might be a little higher than the calculator estimated. I think maintaining 1lb of muscle uses 3 time the calories needed to maintain 1lb of fat.

WellyJ wrote:

So you think that pushups, situps etc would be the best way for me to start off?

This was because you said you have no weights at the moment. As you lose weight and get stronger then you will outgrow (undergrow ) the body weight exercises. My weights do not take up much room. Situps are not great, but better than nothing. I would do pushups, squats, pull ups, chinups, you can get chinning bars in argos, but you might need a more heavy duty one at your current weight.
A single dumbell with a few plates will not take up much room and you can do plenty of exercises with just that alone.

As you mentioned no exercise in the first post I thought you might only dedicate a few hours a week to it, in which case I think weights would be the most effective for fat loss. If you are willing to do more then certainly get some cardio in, doing too much weights can result in overtraining. As mentioned do the weights before the cardio. This way you are full of energy so can lift to your full potential, this stimulates the muscles more and gets them to grow bigger.
To grow muscle you want to be in the 8-12rep range, e.g. once you can do 12 pushups you might want to start on proper weights. If you can only do say 4 pushups then you might want to switch to your knees or do them on the stairs so you are in the 8-12 rep range.

Pugsley

Not long ago I was in even worse shape than yourself

Im 6'3" and I weighed in at 278lb's last November, dropped myself down to approx 244lb's since I started reading up here and actually taking the advice, and much more than 34lb's of that was fat, put on a fair chunk of muscle too. I had decent strength about me before I started, but was still ultimately in the 'fat git' area of things so I done something about it.

I was walking a lot at uni anyway, added some weights, started eating right (only been on the 6 meals a day for about 3 or 4 months now, after a few weeks it becomes second nature, its helped a lot) and watching portion sizes. I'm now up to swimming 3 times a week and weights every other day (about 45 minute sessions, I can barely stand by the end of it, my walk to the shower is not entirely straight most days).

Reaching 15 stone will be no bother, if you really put your mind to it you could have it done within a year, and most importantly what your doing will become habit, no point just doing it to 'get fit', its only worth doing to 'be fit'. You could do it in 6-8 months if you REALLY put the work in, but personally I'd rather still live a little and enjoy my year than 6 months of slogging followed by getting back to bad habits, I'm happy waiting th extra time to enjoy getting fit.

I would do pushups, squats, pull ups, chinups, you can get chinning bars in argos, but you might need a more heavy duty one at your current weight.
A single dumbell with a few plates will not take up much room and you can do plenty of exercises with just that alone.

Seconded, pull ups and chin ups will be very very hard at the start probably, you may not even get 1 proper rep (I couldnt when I started), help a bit with your legs if you need to until you get the strength needed in your shoulders and arms.

To grow muscle you want to be in the 8-12rep range, e.g. once you can do 12 pushups you might want to start on proper weights. If you can only do say 4 pushups then you might want to switch to your knees or do them on the stairs so you are in the 8-12 rep range.

You should also be doing these in sets, if you can do 12 push ups, do that, rest for about a minute, then do as many as you can, do that 2-4 for each workout.

electric69

If you are intersted in losing weight and toning up i have site that you will love.

http://www.iwantsixpackabs.com/abs.html

It is completly free.there are absolutely no hidden agendas or anything that you need to be worried about. The guy in charge of the site ( Arnel) is giving people everything they need to know about losing weight (and getting a six pack in 16weeks) . Everything is made very clear in videos and animations.
As of yesterday 3rd Sept, he is running a competition for anyone who wished to enter (again everything on the site is completly free).The programme last for 16weeks and gives you everything you need to know about diet and exercise. As you can see from his video, the results are pretty amazing, and all this came from no gym membership,very small amout of equipment and no "miracle" weight loss food, just normal food available in every supermarket.
Hope this was some help and good luck with the fitness!

Colm_OReilly

Hey man,

Fair play to you for wanting to sort out your life and making changes!

A few points and advice.

Weight loss is a result of a difference between energy in and energy out - simple as that. Whether this difference is made up through extra energy expended each day or less taken in, it's simple maths and physics. Hell, you could loss weight on coke and chocolate if the energy taken in was less than you expended. You'd feel pretty damn sick admittedly but you'd lose weight.

For a healthy diet, check out The Paleo Diet or The Zone - they're the top notch stuff. However, any time you change your diet, particularly away from simple sugars like you get from the vending, your body needs a bit of time to readjust to using a different fuel.

As for exercise, try to blur the lines between cardio and weights - nature doesn't distinguish and neither should you. If you want to work out at home, visit www.simplefit.org - there's a wealth of routines and advice for free on that site.

If you want to join a gym, try as much as possible to follow the workouts on www.crossfit.com - there's no better fitness protocol out there. Sure, you'll probably need to scale every workout, but there's very few people who don't.

Again, best of luck with changing your lifestyle. You seem to be quite focused so I'm sure you'll see results real soon.

Colm