Need some advice for Weight Loss

[swanso5]

shit mate your killing yourself with that program..

bad points
31 sets per workout so 93 a week (i'd be lucky to do this i a fortnight)..
no legs..
too many mchines...
oo much arms..
crunches..
smith machine..
exercise order..
exercise selection..
low intensity long duration cardio..
too many sesions each week..
no where near enough cal's for this volume whoch doesnl't matter cos the volumes all wrong..
you're skinny fat as your muscle has simply wasted away from all the volume of light shitty exercises (if the muscle doesn't need to stay there to lift ever increasing wts then it won't)

good points:

at least your doing something i suppose
i can help you here:

http://www.uponlinetraining.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[amind]

hi,

Thanks for your response.

[cassiegose]

Also... If you could post EXACT diet that would help alot to see whats going on. 3 meals and 2 snacks isn't enough detail. What does each meal and each snack consist of? How many calories? How much protein/Carbs/Fat?

[amind]

Thanks...

diet sucks right now...as I am roommates with folks who are vegetarian plus are bad cooks. We have
this arrangement where we take turns to cook and that messes up diet. It is very tough phase for me, as I am
used to a very meat intensive diet, so I am hurting now. Atleast this arrangement is temporary and in the next
few months, I will be housing on own so I should be able to control what I eat much better.

I try to make up by having Tuna sandwiches, peanuts, almonds, ready to it chicken, other protein food sources,
etc as workaround meals. But that ain't enough protein.

And about work out routine, I guess I am in a "doomed if I do and doomed if I don't" situation , as
everything I do has been rubbished and thrashed and left out to hang dry

[cassiegose]

As for the diet.. thats a tough one. Vegetarian meals typically aren't that bad for you (although this definitely does depend on the cook and the meals they're preparing).... as long as they are using lots of veggies and whole grains you should be fine as long as you continue adding your own protein to the meals. If you haven't already you might purchase some eggs, tilapia, and fat free cottage too. These are affordable and are great source of protein.

For your workout... Are you working out in the gym or at home? What kind of equipment do you have access too? For your workouts you'd be better off sticking to compound exercises such as deadlift variations, squat variations, lunge variations, pullup variations, lat pull downs, pushup variations, bench press variations, row variations, dips, and military press. These exercises all work more than one muscle group at a time (so you get more bang for your buck so to speak) and there are enough variations to each exercise that you can do one form of them with every workout and never do the same workout twice in a row. For example for pushups you can do incline, decline, wide hands, hands in a triangle... to hit your chest and triceps at different angles. If you think about it... why waste you time going to the gym and doing a bunch of bicep curls that only work one muscle group, when you can go and do rows or pullups and work both your back and biceps all at once? Makes sense to me to kill two birds with one stone and do the compound exercises.

You're doing great! This health and fitness stuff can be confusing and overwhelming. Just keep plugging along and keep asking as many questions as necessary. We'll be here for you to help you get this all figured out as long as you continue to put in the work and ask about stuff that you dont' understand.

[amind]

One more question about cardio, with a weight (fat) loss goal:

-Is it better to do 2 sessions of 30-40 min cardio in a day. Since I read somewhere and learned from members here
that cardio should be more then 20 and less then 40 mins.

-If cardio is the first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, just hydrated, then I guess it can be for 20 mins to be effective and not
lose lean muscle. Trying to confirm.

-if it is at any other time during the day, about 2 hrs after any meal, then it can be upto 40 mins to be effective and not lose lean muscle
Trying to confirm.

-It can also be done after a weight training session, should it then be 20 or 40 mins to be effective and not lose lean muscle ?

-If it is walking v/s jogging v/s elliptical, then would the timings of 20 mins or 40 mins still be relevant or does that change given the
nature of the cardio ? In other words if I walk for 40 mins or jog for 40 mins, hopefully I am still not losing lean muscle doing the latter.

Thanks for your patience. I am learning a lot from all of you....

thank you.

[swanso5]

time to be honest...

i am almost positive that you barely have any lean muscle to worry about...your worrying about tidbits that don;t matter when the big things i.e.. diet and wt training is ordianry at best

80% of your results will come from 20% of the things you do

train hard and heavy and eat properly and all these cardio questions (cardio in genral is not what you need anyway) don;t matter

http://www.uponlinetraining.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[amind]

time to be honest...

i am almost positive that you barely have any lean muscle to worry about...your worrying about tidbits that don;t matter when the big things i.e.. diet and wt training is ordianry at best

80% of your results will come from 20% of the things you do

train hard and heavy and eat properly and all these cardio questions (cardio in genral is not what you need anyway) don;t matter

http://www.uponlinetraining.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Swanso5 -- Great job. Are you upset that I didn't fall for your plug and sign up on your website ? It is ok dude. you have the world to spam
and scam , so what if I got away. just being honest....Please refrain from responding to questions if you can't add value. I can rely on the other
members for their valuable feedback and support.

Thanks

[amind]

always eat before you w/o. Going empty is no good. Ever. Low fat, complex carbs, protein, something along those lines.

going twice a day is a really awesome way to burn out.

keep it under 45 minutes. HIIT is usually more like 20.

After a weight session you will wear yourself out if you try to run for 45 minutes. I usually do less than 30 on post w/o days. Cardio only days I typically either play a sport or do a 30-45 minute jog.

The nature of the cardio isn't as important as maintaining your HR.

Hi, thanks for the clarification. There were a few websites, that recommend cardio to be most effective when done first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, but some of them were totally against it. So I was trying to seek clarifications. Thanks for explaining it....greatly appreciate it.

some contradicting examples from the web:
Pros:
"Doing cardio first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, before you eat anything, is by far, the most effective. Whether you run, jog, walk, swim, jump rope, take an aerobics class, ride a bike, etc., doing it first thing in the morning is the best time to do it for maximum fat loss. Why? Its simple. When you do your cardio workout, you are burning calories. Lets say you wake up, eat breakfast, eat lunch later in the day, and then a few hours after lunch, you do your cardio. All you will be doing during that cardio is burning the calories and carbs of the food you just ate. When you do cardio first thing in the morning, you haven't eaten anything for the last 8 or so hours because you were sleeping. So, when your body sees that there are no carbs to burn, it goes directly to stored . And stored is the fat that is on your body, which is the fat that you want to lose! "

Cons:
"First of all NO! Cardio in the morning is probably the most stupid idea I have ever heard. This isnt just opinion but the most knowledgeable trainers and exercise experts agree that cardio in the morning on an empty stomach is not good for you body.Well, you might ask, what if I want to burn fat? I have low glycogen stores in the morning and energy levels are low because I dont have carbohydrates, so then I will tap into fat stores right? This is TOTALLY wrong. The complete opposite happens. Let me enlighten you. Fat burn doesnt occur during cardio exercise, but about two hours after. Instead your body will look at your tasty muscles for energy meaning. "

[swanso5]

Please refrain from responding to questions if you can't add value. I can rely on the other
members for their valuable feedback and support.

what the ???

read and implement the answers mate and you might get somewhere

http://www.uponlinetraining.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[amind]

Please refrain from responding to questions if you can't add value. I can rely on the other
members for their valuable feedback and support.

what the ???

read and implement the answers mate and you might get somewhere

http://www.uponlinetraining.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Repeating myself again:

"Please refrain from responding to questions if you can't add value. I can rely on the other
members for their valuable feedback and support."


And it seems like you are displaying your true personality by using abusive language. Please sell your spam/scam and your
website elsewhere. Please don't use this thread to solicit your website. I am sure you are violating the forum rules by plugging
your website to forum members who have questions.

[swanso5]

not plugging anything buddy, you want info you can read it if you don't then i don't care

good luck, it sound like you'll need it

[amind]

Weigh In day - Update

Started tracking Exercise Routine - mid July 09

Jun 09--- 224 lbs
July 09--- 222 lbs
Aug 09--- 213 lbs
Sep 09 --- 211 lbs --

Weight loss is almost at a standstill, but no worries, have come a long way since June 09. That is the optimist in me

After all the feedback and interactions, have made several changes to routine, so hoping to see better results. It is slightly
difficult to stay motivated when the scale doesn't support you, but I guess at least the inches are saying a different story.

Here is updated routine:

Mon - Weights + 20 mins cardio
Tue- AM Cardio 30 mins + PM Cardio 45 mins
Wed - Weights + 20 mins cardio
Thu- AM Cardio 30 mins + PM Cardio 45 mins
Fri - Weights + 20 mins cardio
Sat- AM Cardio 30 mins + PM Cardio 45 mins
Sun- PM Cardio 45 mins

For Weights- will alternate between Upper Body, Lower body, Abs, full body workouts as per the feedback received. I also got some
good weight training workout routines from the net and from a book by Bob Harper(Biggest Loser trainer).
For Cardio - will alternate between Hill Climb on Tread mill, Step Master, Walk/Run outside, Elliptical and occasional trail running.

Could not do any weights for the last week or two due to a freak BBQ accident when I got some burn injuries on forearm. It is healing
so I should be able to start this week.

Will also include a Protein shake on Weight training days.

Thanks to everyone for all your support and feedback. Though scale has not been generous, I see some muscle definition and clothes
are fitting better, so something is working I was able to donate XL size shirts last weekend as their fitting was very loose , wearing
size L shirts now. Hopefully I didn't jump the gun on that , well at least it went for a good cause.

Hopefully next weigh in at the end of October might produce better stats....

thanks all.

[amind]

Wow! Good work!

One teeny comment...

I would cut the AM Cardio. You really look like you are overtraining. 45 minutes a day should be plenty (on weight free days). I'd hate to see you burn out or get a stress injury. Additionally, rest is *vitally* important! Without rest you cannot recover! Without recovery your muscles cannot grow!!

I would also take a day off. One of those Cardio days should be total rest. Your body requires rest! (See above re: stress injuries. They are real, they do happen, and they *really* stink. With an injury you can't work anything until you are better!)

Also

Pitch the scale! The numbers don't mean anything. You only went down 2lbs, which sounds like it frustrates you but you lost a shirt size! Clothes fit better, and you even said "the inches tell a different story"!! Toss that bad boy (:

Thanks Lesplease...I will try to incorporate those changes. appreciate your feedback.

[ldematto]

Hi! A late arrival on your thread but I felt the need to share....throw the scale away! I haven't lost a pound (well maybe 2) since the beginning of July - everyone tells me (and I feel it too) that I'm lookimg much better. Clothes fit me differently, the inches are moving around, mostly off! Whatever you do don't give up - there are lots of folks here who will give you tons of encouragement and feedback! Sounds like you are really determined an dedicated - you'll do great! I look forward to following your success!