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Advice on loosing weight?

  • 02-01-2008 9:34pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 402 ✭✭


    Hello All,

    I'm 5'11'' 26year old male living in New zealand for another 5 months and looking to speed up my weight loss.

    Since last march i have lost 22 kilos:D . I was 117k now i'm 95k. Its changed my life and i feel great but i hit the barrier and my weight loss has slowed down.

    I'm heading back to Ireland in may and want to lose the rest of the weight and tone up a bit.

    My general routine is 5 evenings a week in the gym:

    Mon,Wed and fri being weights and 20min cardio.
    (5 different weight benches working on chest, shoulders and legs at 2 sets of 15 reps) + 4 set of 20 stomach crunchs

    Tues + Thurs just 20-30min of cardio.(Alternate between bike, xtrainer and thredmill)

    My general diet is:
    Morning - bowl of Muesli and cup of coffee.
    Lunch - Sandwich and tea
    Dinner - No Carbs - veg and meat
    Snacks - Yogurt and Fruit.

    All this has done me well so far but i need to ramp it up a bit. Most of the weight left is on my chest and stomach and i want to get rid of this.

    Can anyone advise on what sort of exercise i should be doing? e.g. more weight or cardio?

    Any advice on what i should be doing in my diet and also format of my exercise? (I currently working out every evening, should i doing something in the morning?)

    On rest days which are generally my weekends should i be doing any exercise or just resting??

    In regards to alcohol comsumption how many a units can be taken without any bad effects with a good exercise routine?

    Do i need to be taking protein shakes? (Only want to lose weight and tone up not really looking to build alot of muscle)

    Also i take multivitamin tabs and will start taking omega3 tabs soon.

    I know this is alot to ask but i've hit a wall and have seen alot of good advise thrown around here so thought maybe someone might be able to throw some my way!! :D


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,415 ✭✭✭Racing Flat


    Energizer,
    I've copied a previous post of mine from a different thread below, but my thoughts would be what you have been doing seemes to have worked excellently, so why change it? I'd be inclined to continue as you were or just do more of same as it has been effective.

    Doesn't really matter what you do, whether it be weights, cardio or other exercise - the key for weight loss would be to train aerobically ie get your heart rate up to 70-80% maximum and maintain this for at least 30mins at leats 3 times a week. There are ways to work out your max heart rate, but for most people, especially someone relatively new to an exercise regime, simple jogging or an exercise bike/cross trainer at an intensity that leaves you slightly out of breath will do fine. I am all for doing intense cardio to improve VO2 max an lactate threshold etc., but that's more importabt whne you are actually fir and want to improve performance further. So for now, as long as you're getting out of breath for at least half an hour at least three times a week that's fine. May take you a while to build up to this so don't worry if you have to stop and walk initially. Soon you'll get to 30mins continuous 3 times a week and after that you'll be able to go for longer and more times a week. And the weight will fall off after a few weeks. I went from 14stone to 11stone after about 6months of jogging, gradually building up as above, simple as that, no better/quicker way to do it, just be consistent whichever exercise type you chose.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 402 ✭✭Energizer


    Cool, Thanx for the advice.

    I'm kinda trying to fine tune things so that i get the max i can.

    In regards to the questions i asked, are any of them relevant that may help or should i just forget about being picky??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭Colm_OReilly


    Energizer,

    First off, congratulations on the weight loss! It looks to me that you're progress has stalled, which will happen with any exercise program, no matter how well designed it is.

    The fat burning zone is a oft quoted myth, so please ignore any heart rate indication of correct training zones. These are correlates of what improves your fitness (and appearance), power is what you should be interested in (how heavy, how far, how fast)

    Put simply, there's simply no better exercise prescription than CrossFit. This site is pretty overwhelming to beginners (it was to me and a lot of others at first) but it is jam packed with info and exercise routines.

    If you're interested in more of a strength building routine that will help you www.startingstrength.net/workouts gives you a simple program to help you.

    As for diet, your dinner is spot on. Now, make sure all the other meals look like that! If you reduce your bread/grain intake and increase your protein/good fat (good fats come from nuts and meat) it will help you normalise your weight.

    Look up Zone and Paleo diets for more advice. If you can, buy the books.

    Colm


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,415 ✭✭✭Racing Flat


    Quote from Com O'Reilly - The fat burning zone is a oft quoted myth, so please ignore any heart rate indication of correct training zones. These are correlates of what improves your fitness (and appearance), power is what you should be interested in (how heavy, how far, how fast) End Quote

    I did not mention a fat burning zone. Training at 70-80% heart rate zone, you are training aerobically, the best way to lose weight. I did not refer to this as 'fat burning' but you will lose fat by training like this, along with overall body weight as long as your energy output is greater than your input (amount you are eating), but I am not advocating that you are doing this by specifically burning fat as an energy source (if that's what you mean by fat burning Colm O'Reilly). There are many references for this, Sally Edwards, Tim Noakes books. As I also said, it doesn't matter how you get your heart rate up to this zone - using a gym, weights, running, cycling, swimmimg. I think though that in the gym, if you are going from one piece of equipment to the next every few minutes, your heart rate may drop so it won't be continuous and it is probably better to be in the zone continuously - all depends how you do your speed work I suppose. But as Colm says, this training improves your fitness and appearance which I gather is what the OP wants?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭Colm_OReilly


    Heart rate is a correlate/derivative of intensity, which is how we build and measure fitness.

    Steady state activity is not the best for weight loss, I've discussed this on another post.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 402 ✭✭Energizer


    Thanx colm and racing for the great advice.

    Those site seem great and i'll have a look and try to integrate them.

    I'm looking to drop down to around 80-83 kilos from my current 95.
    Is this pushing it too far for a 5 month period??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭Colm_OReilly


    I wouldn't say so, that's abut 20 weeks to lose 10-15 kg, about a kg a week.

    Muscle is denser than fat, so to plagiarise another's post, you can always take a photo of yourself under the same lighting conditions each week or fortnight, and compare that. Getting more ripped = good :)

    Please post updates and keep a log. And when you get home, come out and train with us


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 402 ✭✭Energizer


    Thanx colm, great advice. will do :D


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