Some fitness advice.

GTE

Hey all. Possibly the wrong forum as I was looking for one with regards to weight loss but anyway.

Newcomer here but with a long summer holiday untill the next college year Ive gotten sick of my extra weight.

Im 6 foot 3 and 19 stone and every pebble of that is my fault
Between one thing and another, bad things in my life and boredom Ive put on a few stone in the last two years.
In secondary school I used to be in or round the 17 stone mark and dropping with a healthyish routine of cereal breakfast, a buttered roll (low low is what I think the deli used) for small break and a chicken and lettuce roll for lunch with at least one litre bottle of water a day. Then when I got home there would be dinner.

Then things happened and over the period of 1 and a half years I gained two stone. It happened so quick and suddenly that I have developed stretch marks around my sides.
My eating habits are crazy. I work in a shop and I always have a bar and a tube of sweets and if I get a break I have a danish and tea.

Im now at a point where im sick of it and Im ready to make a commitment to eat healthy however Im finding it harder to do the physical exercise, most likely due to ignorance of what to do and whats best.

I want to get rid of my gut and man boobs to be blunt. Thats my aim. So to do this I thought I would do stomach crunches and push ups coupled with an hours walk most days. However when I do crunches I find it very difficult to do a lot of them. It doesnt hurt but I think my stomach is so fat that the muscle I have is just finding it very hard to do what I ask of it.
Additionally when I do push ups my arms end up hurting but I know that I have lost some muscle compared to what I used to be.
With the walking when I come home it feels like my legs got a great work out but feck all happens above that. My legs are fairly musculer as Im a drummer so that didnt really seem to disappear as it did on my arms when I stopped playing cause of no band.

So, I think what I need is to ease into the crunches and push ups so I was wondering does anyone have any advice on what I should do?
Any lightweight exercises to get my body ready for the more intensive stuff down the line?

In terms of my eating habits Im trying to stick to water and also water with Robinsons squash type stuff. I also drink diet coke instead of the normal stuff but now beginning to switch to water. Is bucket loads of tea and water a good option?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree in the first place in terms of simply losing the weight?

Im half spurred on by a show on TV3 I saw the last minute of when they said they had lost 8 pounds in a week and I was like, YEAH! I could do that! The pictures they showed were of healthy eating and reasonable exercise. By that I mean no gym stuff but I didnt see the full program.

Thanks all
Regards
Fed up fat man.

Devia

I'd definitely take muscle exercises such as crunches and pushups off the priority list until you lose some mass. I'd focus on light cardio to increase your fitness levels a bit (brisk walk, cycling ect.) and couple that with a good diet (plenty of threads on that if you search).

As for the question about drinks... water is all you should aim to be drinking when trying to lose weight. Tea is alright but too much of it can have a diuretic affect which will just leave you feeling more dehydrated, same applies to diet coke.

ngoyvaerts

Hey,

was in sorta that same way a few months ago until I met a fitness instructor. He pushed me a little and got me going to the gym and eating better. Check Mens Health for some ideas on what to eat and some weight loss training. Diets aren't the greatest idea as they're really just a temp job, doesn't work that well. What you want to do is;

• Eat 5 meals a day, 3 meals, 2 snacks, keeping your metabolism up.
• Eat good amounts of Fiber with each meal to keep you filled.
• Limit the amount of starch your eat.
• Have some protein with every meal, and don't worry about fat.
• Make sure you get breakfast, Bran preferably. Try have it soon after you wake.

That's it really for diet advise to start. It's really more a lifestyle change that'll keep that weight off more than anything when it's down.

Nat

GTE

Thanks for the replies.
Ill have a think about all of that and work something out.

GTE

Well I've started out by thinking about how I eat and what I eat along with some more walking and general physical work. Little things like hoorving the house when I normally wouldnt, doing more work on the car. Just doing things. Im in the middle of holidays so Id be sitting on my arse otherwise.

Anyway, since the post here Ive managed to lose about 3 pounds so small steps. Definitely in the right direction!

Time now to put more thought into it and get something more substantial going.

TommyKnocker

Hi bbk

Have a look at this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054876750

It's stickied at the top of the main forum page. It contains lost of good information on nutrition and it's all free. Also the folks who posted it all post here and on the Diet & Nutrition forum, so if you have any questions you could either PM them or open a thread to which they and others will reply.


Best Regards,

M