Newbie looking for advise and motivation

[TheZepp0]

Hi all,

I want to get back into training as I have put on FAR too much weight lately and it is beginning to affect confidence and more importantly health. The last time I dieted I lost over a stone but put it back on again quite quickly. After reading a lot on these forums I have realized I must have committed every diet and exercise crime in the book! I fasted so body went into survival mode, I had too few calories so energy was sapped, I exercised too often and didn't give myself time to heal and more importantly I had unreal expectations and time limits.

This time, being a little big older, and wiser, and unfortunately fatter, I am aiming for a pound a week initially and a pound every two weeks there after until I hit wall and then a very slow climb down to goal weight.

What I'm asking for is a little advise. I have got a pull up bar, a punch bag, a situp bench, a bull bar (you know one of those big springy things for bending), and a measly 24 kgs of weights.
Can you tell me what else I should get to help me achieve a good exercise plan, and what weights a beginner of size should be doing to start off with (weight and reps). I want to build a bit of muscle to burn a little fat and increase metabolism not be be hulked up.

BTW this forum and site is great and reading some of the posts and seeing some of the results on peoples pictures is a real inspiration. So drop me a message and give me a bum kicking every so often to help me out!

Cheers

[Nokie173]

Hello & Welcome to the site!!!

That’s good that you’re here and you’re ready for a healthy lifestyle!
Exercising is good for your health but diet is very important for losing weight.
At the moment, what do you eat and what time you eat? write them down.
People in here can help you improve your diet!

The main thing is NOT to give up… Yes, we all have our down time and life can be realty really really…. Hectic! But we all need to take time for ourselves and our body! If you have questions or just want to vent/express… feel free to post!
We have a lot of supportive and positive people here to help and give you a butt kicking if you need one!

Nokie

[cassiegose]

Hi there! Welcome to the site!

Yes, give us an idea of what youre doing and we'd be more than happy to help you get started on the right foot.

For weights.... I would start with things like pull up variations, row variations, bench press variations,pushup variations, squat variations, lunge variations, deadlift variations, dips, and military press. These are compound movements which means you'll be working more than one muscle group with each lift. To build muscle... I usually recommend starting with 3 sets of 10 (the 10th rep should be HARD if the 10th rep feels easy then increase youre weight).. from there you can start to play with reps and weight by increasing weight, decreasing reps, adding sets.. increasing the weight will overload your muscles and force them to grow to handle the increased weight. I honestly don't believe there is any set program that is better than any other. In fact, when I hit the gym I never do the same workout twice.... always switching it up. Sometimes I do 4 sets of 12, sometimes I do 5 sets of 5, sometimes I do 4 sets of 6, sometimes I do one set of 15, increase the weight, then do as many as I can, then increase the weight and do as many as I can, then increase the weight and do as many as I can, then go back to the starting weight and do as many as I can. I'm a firm believer in keeping the body guessing so it can't adjust to the workouts.

Just thoughts. Hope this helps!
Cassie

[TheZepp0]

Hi and thanks for the reply,

I have normally skipped breakfast in the past but am trying to have some serial in the morning with a glass of dilute juice. I will then normally go till about 12:30 and have a bite to eat today I had some pasta with tuna and peppers and then some fruit (mixed a couple of slices of kiwi, strawberry, grape and water melon) then throughout the day I will normally snack on some other fruit or vedge (today I had a pack of 8 tomatoes from 1 till 5) then I get home and have main meal around 6 (today it was a jacket potato with quarn burger with some cheese sauce and some home grown green beans - yes grown by me!) then, dont shout, a pudding of a small apple pie (a 2inch one). I normally only ever drink water, maybe 1 cup of tea a day.

I think I need to get some more weights from what you've been saying as I can do 5 sets of 10 reps with 24kg weights without being difficult at all. Am trying to build up pull ups on a good day I can do 15 straight off so need to work on them.

Again, thanks for the posts! Please keep up with the advise I am finding it useful and motivating!

Cheers

Ben

[cassiegose]

Breakfast... Skipping breakfast is like the ultimate sin! If you are going to skip any meal of the day... please don't skip this one... I cringe just thinking about having to start off morning without big fat bowl of eggwhites and oatmeal/sweetpotatos.

For breakfast, you need a balance of complex carbs and lean protein. I would skip the juice and actually have some fruit instead. Cereal is a good option as long as youre having something whole grain, high in fiber, and low in sugar. About 75% of the cereals found in the cereal aisle are pure crap in opinions. Oatmeal is a good option, whole grain bread works too. For proteins... eggwhites are great for breakfast as they are typically considered a breakfast food... grilled chicken is also good, as is soy, lean red meat, fish, and lean cuts of turkey.

To keep your metabolism chugging along at full speed i would eat a meal between breakfast and lunch (assuming you go more than 3 hours between these meals?) Some kind of lean protein and fruit with a little healthy fat works well.

For lunch:Make sure the pasta is whole grain, tuna is a good option, fruit is not bad but make sure to have veggies in there also!

Between lunch and go home time I would sneak in some protein, healthy fats, and veggies. Keep the fruit to the earlier meals.

Dinner: Just kind of assuming a jacket potato and quarn burger with cheese sauce is high in saturated fats and calories. I would stick to mostly veggies and lean proteins for dinner... can have a bit of whole grain pasta, quinoa, whole grain bread, whole grain couscous, or brown/wild rice with this meal however make sure the majority of your meal is lean protein and veggies. Good job on growing those green beans! Foods out of the garden taste soo much better than store bought stuff!

Yes, sounds like you need some heavier weights. I would invest in some.

Good job Ben!

Cassie

[nelson712]

HIIT high intensity interval training keep going from workout to workout with little or no rest it will help with weight loss alot. do weights first before doing cardio because if you dont them afterward your glycogen levels will be down.NEVER EVER skip breakfast its the thing that starts off your metabolism and keeps it going till you eat again eat 5-6 meals a day with a fruit/vegetables in each meal.aiming for 1 pound a week a good dont ever do it its considered dangerous to lose more then 2 pounds a week.eat more protein then carbs on days of weight lifting.throw away all junk food , and fatty foods.cut your calories.

[TheZepp0]

Hi guys,

thanks for the advice, I am really appreciating the time you are spending helping me out! I really am in this for the long haul and you are motivating me to loose the weight! This week for some reason the weight has been dropping off me, so much so I nearly took scales back as I thought they were faulty! I cant understand it, I think I am actually eating MORE now than I was before except I have virtually cut out sweets, crisps and biscuits and fizzy drinks and replaced them with fruit (only before 8pm), health bars and fruit juice and am eating something every 2 or 2 1/2 hours and am NEVER skipping breakfast.

So I have lost in nearly 11 days a whopping 6lb! Which, to be honest, I was initially worried about but I really do feel much better and have LOADS more energy (which is good as I start back college part time next week, already have an 20 month old little girl and have a pregnant wife 19 weeks into the pregnancy! So need all the energy I can get!). The moobs look like they will be on their way and lost 1.5" from waist.

Dont worry, I'm not expecting this to continue, I actually think I will put weight on (hopefully some muscle.

Cheers guys have also uploaded some new photo's for the proof, nothing amazing but I am trying to keep an accurate diary.

[nelson712]

WOW proud of you keep it up your doing good yes if your doing everything right with your strength training you will see more muscle, curious what is your routine like right now???

[TheZepp0]

Every 2 days just pull ups, sit ups, weights over head, curls, squats with weights and bending the bull bar. 4 x 10 reps of each with as little recovery time a possible (about 10 seconds between each). But in the main I think I have been more active overall, just taking the dog for a walk everynight, with a bit of jogging, have been building a playhouse for the little one so have been lifting wood I guess - and digging loads of dirt (maybe half a cubic meter and dragging it around the garden rocky style!LOL!) trying to level parts of the garden. So in the main just more activity requiring some work I guess with a little bit of exercise and more walking.

[nelson712]

good really good you are doing right thats what im talking about interval training well keep us posted on your weight loss you'll get there soon

[cassiegose]

HIIT high intensity interval training keep going from workout to workout with little or no rest it will help with weight loss alot. do weights first before doing cardio because if you dont them afterward your glycogen levels will be down.NEVER EVER skip breakfast its the thing that starts off your metabolism and keeps it going till you eat again eat 5-6 meals a day with a fruit/vegetables in each meal.aiming for 1 pound a week a good dont ever do it its considered dangerous to lose more then 2 pounds a week.eat more protein then carbs on days of weight lifting.throw away all junk food , and fatty foods.cut your calories.

I'm sorry but i need to clarify a few things here...

1- When working out go from set to set with little or no rest to increase intensity... but don't necessarily go from "workout to workout" as your body needs time between workouts (atleast 24 hours) to recover.

2- You don't necessarily need to eat more protein than carbs. Carbs are a very important part of a diet and I've seen many solid diets with ratios of 40/40/20 or 33/33/33. Its a matter of playing with macros to figure out what diet works best for the individual... and it also depends on the persons goals. You don't always necessarily need to to less carbs than protein... however there are some good diets that do have more protein than carbs. Carbs often have a bad reputation when it comes to weight loss... they are not the enemy! Just depends on the person, the carbs they are eating, and their goals.

3- Don't throw away all fatty foods! Nuts, olive oil, avacados, nut butter, coconut oil, flax... are all high in fat and are GOOD FOR YOU! You need healthy fats (unsaturated fats) in your diet. Just be careful what kind of fatty foods youre eating and you'll be fine.

4- Yes, losing fat is a matter of creating a caloric deficit but be careful when it comes to simply cutting calories. I see MANY people who think that "cut your calories" means "eat only 1000 calories a day". This is NOT the case! In order to get your metabolism to run at full capacity you need to feed it.... Almost like you need to let your body know that you are going to feed it regular, healthy, balanced meals so it can go ahead and let go of some of the energy stores that its holding because it doesn't need those. When people simply "cut calories" they often do so in such a drastic manner that their body thinks that its starving and shuts down the metabolism in order to survive... it also tries extra hard to hold on to fat stores as it doesn't know how long its going to have to survive on such low calories and tries to reserve as much fat for later as possible. Also, an important part of losing weight is having a solid workout program. If a person cuts calories drastically then they won't have the energy needed to sustain a solid workout program... they will be exhausted from such limited calories and will have a hard time putting in an effective workout in the gym.

Just wanted to clarify those things in case anybody reading this thread gets the wrong idea.

Cassie

[Boss Man]

Plus, losing more than 2lbs a week, is not unhealthy upto a point. Conditions apply on this though.

Some people could lose as much as 4lbs Fat a week, but to do that, they would have to be morbidly Obese. We're talking around 300lbs+ female, 350lbs+ , roughly I think.

For a 3lb a week loss, around 250lbs+ female, 300lbs+ roughly. This however is not an exact science though, just educated supposition on part.

2lbs is a good figure to aim for for most, bearing in mind though anything less is one of two things.

A: some Muscle gain with Fat loss.

B: some kind of issue(s) hindering losses. to some or a major extent.

[TheZepp0]

Thanks for the info guys, I have read some of the other posts and have already included nuts (unsalted blanched peanuts), oat bars, muesli, and upped fruit and vedge intake. Still eating chicken (without the skin) and red meat (with the fat cut out and NOT fried) and upped fish intake (salmon, pollock, haddock, and monk fish).

The only thinks I have cut out is the sweets , crisps and biscuits (which I could easily eat 1200 calories a day), fizzy pop, processed foods (microwave dinners) and very fatty foods (pork pies etc). And have just switched very small things like full fat milk to semi skimmed.

I have also started to take vitamins (iron, codliver oil, omega 3 and ginsing - the ginsing as a study aid) to help me out.

Cheer guys

Ben

[Boss Man]

I wouldn't take the Iron, you shouldn't need it. You'd only be given Iron by a Doctor if you had a problem with your Blood or were Anaemic.

There is so much Iron in abundance in food particularly from things like Meat, Fish, Poultry Whole-grain etc etc, you don't need supplemental stuff.

[gordnas24]

I am by far no expert but I have found some help from these forums myself and I have lost 15 pounds since August 10.
first two weeks I dropped 10 pounds, but I also cut out pepsi and went to drinking green tea. Green tea is excellent. I hit a big plateau on week 3 where I gained 3 pounds and didn’t lose any weight for 2 weeks….I got very frustrated and wanted to quit, but I just kept coming here for encouragement.

The food journal on here is an excellent way to keep track of what you eat and now I read the labels of everything. I was also just mainly doing the elliptical with weights. One of friends that is in a weight loss program told me I was lifting too heavy…so I decreased weights to the lightest with lots of repetition and started HIIT on elliptical, treadmill and bike. I change it around every day now to keep metabolism going. For example on the treadmill…I will do 4 minutes slow, 2 fast, 2 slow, 2 faster, 2 slow, etc. and it is dropping the weight! Yay! I am now down 15 pounds and clothes are starting to be so lose I think I am going to have to start finding something else to where.
diet…is basically string cheese before I workout, then some eggs, toast, fruit….almonds or strawberries for morning snack, lunch is now peas, green beans, chicken, fish with some fruit. Then afternoon snack of almonds, string cheese or strawberries. Dinner is chicken, fish, roast…whatever it is just cut down your portions and that will help. I then have been jump roping after dinner.