Getting started?

[USOC]

When I was in high school, I was in decent shape and strong as could be. Now, I find my self to be in terrible shape and fairly weak. Problem is, lifting like I did when I was 18, then taking a 7 year break has caused me to look way to much like a football. I am now ready to get back to the way things were, but find a few obsticles in the way. I'm 5'10'' and 260 lbs. and am afraid to ask my bf %. I have been cleared by my doctor for exercise with no limitations, and have begun on a light and simple "readjustment" plan. In 2-3 months I will be able to higher a trainer to help with diet and workout programs, but in the mean time, I'm barely able to pay bills and buy food. Anyone have any tips that can get me started until I can get the real work done? I'd like to crash some weight off to get started as right now my knees kill me after cardio and I think I'd be better off losing 20-30 pounds and then going to a more normal healthy diet even a the expense of some lean mass (not that I have all that much at the moment).

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[candle25]

IMO you should use your hard earned $$$ to buy food and a few sups rather than paying a trainer. Just search around in the forums to learn what you need to know. There are always people around who will help for free. As for losing 20-30lbs, I'd need to know a little more. At 5'10" & 260lbs you're either a monster or prob have a good bit of BF. You know your body better than me, so you'll have to decide on how extreme you're going to have to get to drop that extra poundage. Try re-evaluating your diet first off. Getting your ratios something like 40P/40C/20F would work well for me. If you need something more drastic consider CKD. Anyhow, this is just a start. Good luck with your goals!

 

[sifu]

Ya man, if you have training questions just come here and other boards, it is free, and we are all willing to help.

 

[Longdog]

I agree about getting your diet in order. Stick to whole foods. If you think about it, good foods are much cheaper than buying junkfood & other crap. If you have high BF, cardio will be just as important as lifting until you get the BF% down to a reasonable level.

Do all the research you can, knowledge will go a long way in helping you reach your goals. The main reason people fail to reach their fitness is they don't understand what they're doing wrong.

 

[heavyD]

A college professor I once had said, "shop around the outside" usually the unprocessed foods are kept in the outer aisles of stores. Since you're dieting, I believe that you should do more of a 2000-2500 calorie diet. As much of this from whole foods as possible. I also think that one should take in as litle fat as possible. Just me though. The bottom line is that you need to burn off more calories than you take in; regardless of what areas you receive your calories from. Another thing that may help is the Glycemic Index. That is a measure of how complex or simple the carbohydrates (sugars) are in a particular food. carbs are sugar. The more complex a carb. is the longer the chain of sugar. I hope I'm not making you feel dumb. If you need to know more about them just ask. The same goes for the GI.

As far as your cardio goes.... When you start weighing over 240-250 range, you really need to start watching what kind of cadio you do. Weighing as much as you do means trouble on the joints. The same goes for everyone. It doesn't matter what your height or build or BF, that is a lot of weight to be carrying around. You may want to try a pool or a bike. Pools are probably the best.

If you are going to take any supplements, be sure that you take them to help you. Alot of folks rely on the supplements to lose the weight and not there diets.

I hope this not undermine you knowledge. If you would like to know more let me know.

 

[candle25]

Since you're dieting, I believe that you should do more of a 2000-2500 calorie diet.

Just to clarify, I think he means that you should taper your current intake down to something around 2K-2500. At your weight I'm guessing that your easily getting 3500-4500 cals/day. The reason I say taper is because if you cut the cals too quickly your body will suffer some major muscle loss and you'll feel like crap. Try something like decreasing your cals 300/week until you're around 2500.

 

[USOC]

Thanks for all the encouragement guys!

To be perfectly clear, when I say I'm in bad shape, I mean it. The only reason I'd ever pay a trainer is because I want to maximize my gains. I'm going to be sticking to low impact cardio in the pool and on a recumbent bike which feels pretty good to me now. I'm going to cut my calories slowly, but not by alot (I've leveled off after packing on alot of fat). I'm still considering the CKD diet, but from what I have read about it, it looks like alot of food which also looks like a lot of money...but I'm still researching right now.

 

[candle25]

Here's a few links that might help:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/keto.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/catcommand2.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jon4.htm

 

[ManBeast]

Definitely be careful with the cardio. I started doing cardio by swimming because I weighed about 285 or so and i'm 5'7". About 3 months after starting swimming I started doing stadiums (running up and down the steps) for about 20 minutes 5 times a week, and my knees were fine, but I was ready to stop doing them if I started to have problems. It all comes down to knowing how to listen to your body. As far as loosing some weight on your own, these guys have pointed you in the right direction. Clean up the diet and lower calories to about 2000-2500, and get some cardio in while being careful about your joints when you start.

ManBeast

 

[USOC]

Well...things seem to be going well and I am adjusting to the new diet nicely. Energy is up and pain in my knees/legs/feet is low. I've been pulling 30 min of cardio 4 days a week at a low intensity, but its hard for me to get to the gym when I've got a sick wife at home. One possible solution to this is to do my cardio at home and just visit the gym on days that I life. A neighbor gave us one of those "Liferider" machines that were sold on TV a few years ago. I've hoped on it and tried it out, but I'm torn on whether its useful or not. As far as I can tell, the impact on my knees is minimal (no more than biking) and my heart rate increases as I use it. But I'm not sure if I'm getting any real benifit. Does anyone know if these things are worth the use or not? Free is free, but if it doesn't work I will have to still find a way to get to the gym for cardio at the expense of sleep or something...

 

[FTMGuy]

I was in your shoe's at one time. I started at 260 and 5'10 and around 36-40% BF. I found keto worked well for me to take off the weight if I knew then what I know now I would have started out with a CKD. I myself started with a 40/40/30 diet (ofr 6 months). That didn't work for me. So I switched to atkins and lost about 40 in 3 months. Then I found CKD! I wish I would have known about it when I started. Now I am 240 and 16-18% BF doing a bulking cycle and will start cutting again. All it takes is hard work and the right diet.. The diet is the important part. Below is where I got most of my CKD info.

www.C-K-D.com

 

[littlemark]

Bump on the CKD - its damn effective at stripping off the weight in my experience. My wife and I actually found that our food bill dropped doing it, since we cut out all the expensive processed meals. Sounds like you're on the way at any rate USOC. Good luck and keep it up!!

 

[USOC]

Update

OK...so I'm in my 3rd full day of CKD and I'm finding the going very easy. I tried Adkins once a long time ago and by the end of the 3rd day I was craving bread so much that I just gave up completely. Right now, I don't even want to think about bread, sugar, soda or anything except losing the fat. I guess I just needed the proper motivation (my wedding day is getting closer all the time) to keep my mind right. I did a little study of my eating habits and found between 3500-4000 calories a day intake. I imediately dropped down to 2500-2600 and began CKD. I'm going to do 3 weeks depletion before my 1st carb-up, but only because I was taking in such huge amounts of carbs for a long time. I've already seen a loss of weight, presumably water loss, even though I'm drinking insane amounts of water. So far I'm happy with this process, and even though I'm only 3 days in, I think I'll be able to stick with it.

 

[USOC]

Day 9- Down 17 lbs and feeling fine (quite energized). I took the last 6 days off from my workout to reevaluate and work on a better plan. Its been so long since I trained regularly that I was hurting myself by going too heavy too soon. When I restart on Monday (having a root canal today) I will begin by doing a full body workout (major multi-muscle movements, ie squate, stiff leg dl, bench, push press, standing rows) 3 days a week and 2 days of cardio to get back to good form and start building back from the ground up.