Need help changing habits and losing some weight

[KyleK]

Hey all! I'm new here and I just created an account so I could gain some advice about losing (or gaining) weight.

So to start off I'll explain a little about myself!
name is Kyle, I'm 19 and a full time college student. I weigh ~175 pounds and I'm 5'9" (I'll post a pic when I can) semi-athletic build. I am in second semester of first year of college and I'm enjoying it quite a bit! Maybe too much though!
I want to start losing some weight to get back to where I was in highschool, ~160 pounds. I wouldn't mind gaining some more muscle mass and losing the fat I have now. Since college I've noticed some gain around pectoral areas and lower quite a bit. I want to get into shape and start being more motivated. I've had a pretty lazy life and I hope through losing weight and hitting the gym that I will get out of lazy personality and not be so docile. I hope that it will change work ethic completely and transform life. I know it will have to be step by step and that it won't happen all at once.

So - being on campus I don't have too much of a good choice of food and being a college student not much money to spend on foods either. There is a salad bar, soup station and sandwich station in the dining hall, obviously junk food station and "home-cooked" meal station. They give nutritional info with what they serve but the questions I have is - what do I need to be eating? What are healthier choices I can make? I drink soda quite a bit and have had problems trying to quit, but now I'm going to be completely serious about cutting soda out of life.

On campus we have a rec center where I will occasionally go and do some weights here and there, I never know what I need to be working on and don't know any workouts that would be good for me. I played sports in high school so I'm not shy with them nor inexperienced. There is a running area friends and I will go run maybe once a week, it's roughly a 1.45 mi run.

I eat whatever sounds good and drink soda profusely. Is Gatorade just as bad as soda and okay to drink? I'd think not because of the sugar content though. What are some other choices to drink? Water being the first - I am going to change this and need some advice on how to break these habits

I have no idea how to start, maybe running MWF and weights Tue Th Sat?
I'm not sure what caloric intake I need and would really appreciate if you guys could help me out! Thanks guys!

[Boss Man]

Hi Kyle, good to talk with you.

As for the training you could do a schedule something like this.

Squats, 2 sets, 10 reps

Lunges, 2 sets, 10 reps

Deadlifts, 2 sets, 10 reps

Bent over Rows, 2 sets, 10 reps

Bench press, 2 sets, 10 reps

Shrugs, 2 sets, 10 reps

Planks 30 seconds.

You would do that 3x a week every other day.

In relation to what to use, go for the second smallest barbell on the squats and deadlifts and the smallest on bent over rows.

Use the second smallest dumbbells on bench press and lunges and the smallest ones on shrugs.

Then every 2 weeks increase the weight a little bit and then after around 6 weeks, you'll be ready to lift close to max lifting for reps, bearing in mind you don't need to do failure training, as it's not necessary and wastes more energy.

This is how your schedule could look per week

Day 1. Weights

Day 2. Cardio

Day 3. Weights

Day 4. Day off

Day 5. Cardio

Day 6. Weights

Day 7. Day off.

This prevents you doing 5 days straight and 2 days of nothing, as I think that's allowing too much consecutive taxation and 2 days of your body doing nothing, slowly starting to adjust to it, before 5 days of grind again, which might take the edge off progress potential, so the 5 split days should be better for you.

As for the diet, you can have these sorts of things for snacks, which will be limited in your circumstances compared to a lot of other people.

Microwave, baked beans, soup and rice dishes, sandwiches, oat granolas, crisps, (potato chips), as if you have ones with things like sun seed in them and lower saturates they can often total less than 200 calories, so then you could combine them with something else to get the calories up.

As for calories you'd be wise to aim for at least 2,000 on non-workout days and around 300-500 more on workout days.

You've got the use of things like salads and soups which you can have and if you incorporate 3 mains and then 3 snacks into your eating patterns, you should be pretty much good to go.

[Fitafter50]

Getting rid of soda is definitely a good idea. If you don't like plain water, a squeeze of lemon or lime helps. You could also drink unsweetened tea--green, white, herbal, black, rooibos--there are so many options, it shouldn't be too hard to find one --or several-- you like. ( I like the Celestial Seasons berry zingers. )

Since you have access to a salad bar, healthy eating shouldn't be too difficult--for one meal a day, you could cover your plate with lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli; top with a protein source--chicken or meat, garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds. I don't think the soybean oil in most salad dressings is particularly healthful, so if olive oil and vinegar is available, that's probably your best option.

Soups that aren't full of cream are another good way to get in your veggies. You want to aim for half of your plate to be vegetables and fruit. The other half can be split between protein and carbs. Cut back on refined grains and get your carbs from sweet potatoes, winter squash, whole grains.

As much as possible, try to choose real food over stuff made in a factory.

You are smart to start thinking about changing your habits at such a young age--wish I had! Remember that it's a process. If you slip up, try to figure out what caused the slip and do some brainstorming on how to prevent the same thing from happening again. Best wishes~