Fatty thinks its about time...

[jakesnake771]

Hey everyone!

So I've been on the forums and I've read them off again and on again for a long time. I am 21 years old and a senior at Illinois State University (who knows, someone might be on here who goes there...). I am 6 foot, maybe 6 foot 1 inch, and about 345 pounds in weight. I don't think I was ever skinny, I was not always fat, but never slim and trim like other folks, nor do I think I will ever get that way, even if I drop the weight.

I am really starting to get focused to lose the weight and I am always looking for support and advice. I have two room mates both who are athletic and fit who are trying to help me lose the weight. One is a P.E. major and the other is a math major with a P.E. minor (want's to be a high school coach). I know they are both intelligent when it comes to fitness and the like, however I am looking for other opinions.

My schedule keeps me busy, class wise, till about 3 everyday. Everyday we have been going to the gym and they both switch off weekly on their own routines (one week they both do one guys, the other week they switch, back and forth). While they are in the gym, lifting away, they toss me in the cardio room. I usually do between 40 mins to an hours worth of cardio. Anything from either the bike to walking at a brisk pace at 20 minute intervals (the machines have a 20 minute max....). For example, two days ago I biked for 20 minutes, walked for 20 and then finished with another 20 minute bike ride.

It has been like this for a week and a half, to two weeks and I havent really noticed any effects. Unlike a lot of overweight people, I don't necessarily eat bad (I'm not scarfing down oreos, etc), but I was just very sedentary and combined with a slow metabolism, doesnt make for a good lifestyle. Even now with getting the cardio in, I know my heart thanks me, but so far the rest of my body doesnt seem to want to give up the fat.

I've been increasing my intake of chicken and fruit, with vegetables starting to ramp up too. I have a Jack Lalanne power juicer, so I've tossed in fruit and vegetable in there before, not sure if thats advisable, but it sure makes it easy to put down 5 fruits, though I miss the benefits of the skin and whatever pulp I miss. I have really cut down on junk food and fast food. I am not a fan of water, it pains me to get it down, but I've been drinking Lemonade Crystal Light which for 16 ounces, has only 5 or 10 calories I think. My roomy hates that I do it because it's not natural, and he can't cope with the fact that I can't drink a glass of plain water without gagging, but I figure being able to drink water in this sense is good enough. Your thoughts on that?

Anyways, so while they are in the gym lifting weights, i'm sitting in the cardio room just sweating to the oldies (by oldies I mean Stevie Wonder, one of my idols). I have always heard that lifting weights can be very beneficial to weight loss because the muscle helps burn fat even at a resting pace. However, they don't seem to want me in there. He says he would consider crafting me a routine where I would cardio 2 days, life 1 day, off, rinse and repeat if I got down to 330 or maybe 325, I dont remember.

My main concern is that it will take forever to get there with just cardio. Would you all recommend I do some lifting instead of the cardio? Cardio at my size (running/walking) can be a bit intensive on the joints so it might be advisable to lift until I lose some weight and then start cardio again. I am not the expert, you all are, so I trust what you say.

If you think I should pick up the lifting, are there any exercises you would recomend that I could do, without relying on a partner, that I could do while they are helping each other out? I am decently competent in which lifts require what motions, but some of the less obvious lifts, you might have to explain.

I am going to try to move more into eating wheat, more vegetables and fruit and a lot of chicken and tuna, but is there anythign else you can think of? I read about ECA/ECY and although I am scared of the history of supplements (ephedra giving people heart attacks) are there any suggestions?

I thank you all for reading this, it was a pretty long post, and I will gladly accept any criticisms and advice you can impart on me.

Thanks and I look forward to updating you all on my progress!!

-Jacob/Jake D-
You can call me J Duke, if you wanna sound cool like my friends lol.

 

[Althalus]

I don't know much about Crystal Lite, but if it's got any kind of sugar or sweetener in it, you'll probably want to avoid it. I hate to tell you like it is, but you're just going to have to suffer through drinking water. Ask yourself if you really want to lose the weight, and you'll have your answer as to how you'll be able to do it. Some times you have to make sacrifices in personal taste to get the results you want, and when you finally do achieve those results, they will far outweigh the "downside" of having to drink water.

No offense to your friends, but they're pretty crazy if they're telling you not to do any lifting. Whether you're trying to bulk, cut, or even just get/stay in shape, lifting is an important part of anything fitness related. What you could try doing is some low intensity cardio (incline treadmill walk, bike, stairmaster) in the morning to get your metabolism rolling, then lift weights in the evening/afternoon.

As for individual exercises, make sure you are at the very least including "the big three" in your workouts, bench press, squats and deadlifts. What makes these exercises so great is that they increase your free flowing testosterone (squats increase it by as much as 20%), and they're very easy ways to mark progress in strength simply because of how much weight you can lift. If you need to get some ideas for more individual exercises, you could try going to bodybuilding.com's exercise database, and check out some things there. Or if you don't mind spending money, there's some incredible books out there that will teach you plenty of exercises, along with the proper form, and give you lots of great information on fitness in general. I personally recommend The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, written by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Some of the information is a smidge outdated, but there's still plenty of gems in there as far as exercises and workout plans go. If nothing else, you can use the book as a dumbbell at home.

As for Ephedra giving people heart attacks, yes, it happened. It was also with much higher doses of ephedra than what we know to be safe now. Taking low amounts of ephedrine sulfate (25-75mg, over 100mg is where it starts to get a bit dangerous from what I have personally read) is safe, but if you don't feel comfortable taking supplements, there's nothing saying you can't get in great shape without them. If you do choose to do ECA/Y, I suggest reading the thread about them here. Lots of information there. As for other supplements...they're mostly crap and not worth it in my experience. Get yourself a good whey protein powder and a multi-vitamin and you're good to go. You could also get a fish oil supplement if you think you're not getting enough healthy fats in your diet. I would save your money, and later on (several years of training later), if you really want to, pick up a prohormone (but if you come to that decision, you need to be very smart about it, read up on it first and get bloodwork done before and after your cycle, etc etc).

Good luck on starting your fitness journey, I hope you start to see some great results in the coming months. Remember, results take time...don't be disappointed if you've "only" lost four pounds in a month. Keep a journal of your lifts, bodyfat % and weight, keep progress pictures, anything to show how far you've come. Also read read read, there's a plethora of information on this forum alone, don't let it go to waste.

 

[merph]

Crystal lite is fine especially for your goals.

Weights are a must in my opinion. Yes muscle burns calories at rest. As for doing bench/squat/deadlift I don't disagree but if your experience in limited for lack of a better term squatting and deadlifting can be very dangerous to your back if done wrong. I recommend doing a circuit routine using mostly machines three times a week. Keep a good pace and keep your heart rate up.

As for diet remember if you starve yourself it will take longer and do more harm than good. Try to eat every 2-3 hours. As for fruits and veggies people disagree. If your going to eat fruits try to keep them toward the beginning of the day and pre/post workout. Veggies make great snacks through the day. Remember veggies not veggies and dip. But if your going to do dip 16oz fat free cottage cheese and 1 packet hidden valley ranch in a blender is really good and high protein.

For supps. get a multivitamin some gluecosamine and some protein powder. For fat loss supps and eca/ecy just stay away for a while. You didn't get your size overnight so your body is going to go through a lot of changes but it WILL NOT be easy or all at once. If you go about this in a responsible healthy manner you can expect to be very pleased somewhere 12 months from now. Not saying you'll have a 6 pack but will surely be a lot leaner.

I know I am missing a lot of important points but its 1am and I'm a little tired. Any specific questions you have just post up and someone will answer there is a lot of really good guys who know their **** on here and your welcome to pm me anything and I'll answer to the best of my ability and if I don't know the answer I won't bull**** you just try to point you in the right direction.

 

[jakesnake771]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to start working in the bench/squats/deadlifts when I go to the gym today.

Would you recommend I do the deadlifts with a barbell or dumbells? I don't think there is a free motion deadlift machine where I'm at. Also for the squats, there is one of those free motion machines where the bar is on like two cylinders that slide up and down two poles (for safety prevention, etc). Is that fine? Or should I get on a loose bar.

 

[Althalus]

Would you recommend I do the deadlifts with a barbell or dumbells? I don't think there is a free motion deadlift machine where I'm at. Also for the squats, there is one of those free motion machines where the bar is on like two cylinders that slide up and down two poles (for safety prevention, etc). Is that fine? Or should I get on a loose bar.

I'd recommend a barbell for deadlifts.

As for squats, doing them on a Smith machine is fine. A barbell would be better because it will help you develop your supporting muscles better, and teach you a more proper form. But if you don't have a spotter/don't want to risk injury for your first few goes at squatting, or just want to work on the basic movement, you can use a Smith machine to do squats.

 

[youngandfree]

Post up what your typical daily intake looks like. Yes, crystal light at 10 cals is fine. If you don't have one, start a Fitday.com account. Awesome way to track everything, daily diet, weight, journal. It's free too. If doing decent amount of cardio for nearly 2 weeks hasn't produced any change in scale weight, I would look to the diet. We can help there too

Post up what you ate the last day or two, and be specific with amounts and timing. Invest in a food scale too.

It's important to remember, you are pretty big right now. You don't want to change everything and become miltant about it from the very beginning. Anyone here that has hit a wall while cutting knows when you do, you have to change something. Less cals or more cardio. Where you are at, you are going to stall out, numerous time. You just have to start out with that in mind and give yourself enough adjustment room down the road.

I would probably suggest upping your cals slightly, but with cleaner foods. Increase your workout intensities to start the losing process. If you start out at too low calories, you won't lose much, your body will actually horde what you eat, and when you need to adjust your cals down, you won't have any where to go.

Hope this helps get you started.

 

[ccapone1153]

stick to the cardio for now.

 

[Sniper2075]

Hi all, first post, I'm in a similar boat as the OP. I'm alittle shorter at 5'10'' and weight in at 325. I'm starting to do cardio in the morning, having a stationary bike in the house means no excuses now. What I need is help with my diet, I do eat too much fast food, have been working on transitioning away from it. If someone could help me or point me in the right direction that would be great. I have no idea how many cals I should eat or what I should buy. I stopped working out a few years ago when I moved, and will start up again when I find a good gym. Thanks alot.