Obese trying to slim up - need advice

[UnslimPickens]

First off, I'd like to note that this is my first post. I've been reading this forum the past couple days and absorbing as much info as possible. I just have a couple questions and hopefully maybe some pointers on what I am doing right / wrong so far.

Quick backstory of me. I am and pretty much have always been extremely obese, ever since I was a little kid (you know, the fat kid in class). Last October (2006) I married a great woman, who ironically is in quite good shape, I of course was still fat. Two months ago we found out that she is pregnant and due June 29th.

This was pretty much my wakeup call that I need to lose a lot of weight and get in shape for when the baby is born.

I started my new food plan and signed up to a gym on Sunday.

For diet one of the dentists that my wife works for and his friend that works @ a "GNC Type" of store told me to go 6+ meals of nearly 0 carb. Which has taken a little getting use to, especially the frequency of food.

For supplements they have me on M80 as a stimulant weight loss, a colon cleanser (that to just take for 1 month), liquid multivitamin, and whey protein mix. So far I feel good taking what I am currently on. However I have seen about 1000000 different posts here saying different stuff that should be taken. Am I missing anything vital that I should be taking?

Here's a example daily food plan (advice is helpful)
Wake up(around 10:30)- Protein Shake, 2 M80 pills, 3 colon cleansers
11:30 - 2 or 3 eggs (or just whites depending)
1:30 - Can of tuna w/ some mustard
4 - couple pieces of cheese, colon cleansers
8:30- protein shake & 2 m80's
9 -leave work and goto gym
11:30- get home from gym and make dinner (piece of steak, pork chops, etc)
right before bed - couple pieces of cheese
Note: Throughout the day I drink probably 100oz of water. I drink 64oz alone while @ work.

Gym Routine (I've only gone 1 week but here's what I have done)
I've been using DIYWorkout on my mobile phone so here are the logs. For workout it goes set #, Reps done, weight.
Sunday - just went to the gym real quick
Treadmill 1 1.25 00:26:00
Monday
Treadmill 1 1.25 00:26:00
Incline Flye 1 20 30
2 15 40
3 10 60
Bench Press 1 30 30
2 12 5 0
3 10 55
Decline Dumbell Press 1 20 20
2 12 30
3 4 40
Bench Press Smith 1 15 20
2 10 30
3 12 40

Tuesday
Leg Press 1 20 160
2 15 180
3 12 200
Leg Curl Lying 1 20 90
2 15 100
3 10 110
Seated Calf Raise 1 20 110
2 17 130
3 20 150
4 15 190
Leg Curl RT ONLY 1 20 40
2 20 40
3 10 50
4 10 50
5 8 60
6 8 60
Treadmill 1 0.81 00:21:00

Wednesday
Tricep Pressdown 1 20 50
2 15 90
3 15 110
4 8 130
Tricep Extension 1 20 50
2 15 80
3 10 90
4 8 100
Bicep 1 20 40
2 15 50
3 8 60
Lat Pulldown Neutral-Grip 1 20 50
2 15 90
3 8 110
Row Machine 1 20 27.50
2 20 27.50
3 15 35
4 15 35
5 10 42.50
6 10 42.50
Treadmill 1 2 00:41:45


That's my workout log so far. I know its extremely low weights compared to most, but remember I have never gone to a gym in my life. My upper body feel especially weak, especially once I push the higher reps. I am waiting on a trainer @ my gym to finally confirm my appointment with them. However I feel that I am completely under utilizing my time @ the gym. I also have 0 plan what so ever when I get there. I've been deciding what I am going to do as I'm on the treadmill for 5 minutes to warm up.


So in brief any suggestions to what else I should take, my food plan, or what I can do @ the gym would be super helpful. In short my goal is to lose a massive amount of weight and when I do lose the weight have a "sorta-cut" look once the fat goes away.

By the way starting weight on Sunday was 307. Current weight as of this AM was 296 (thank god for "water weight").

Regards in advance for your help.

 

[EasyEJL]

It looks like an ok start. i'd probably try and ditch the shakes if possible, and go with whole food, more egg whites, chicken breasts, etc.

Also, regardless of what you heard, 0 carbs isn't necessary or even valuable. Avoiding simple carbs + hidden calories from carbs is. BIG difference. Add vegetables to your diet, primarily leafy greens and broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus (cruciferous veggies). Tomatos are fine too, avoid potatos and corn. Fruits are kinda 50/50, I think in moderation they are fine, a banana and an apple a day will not kill you Also, wild rice or quinoa are good sources of reasonable carbs.

Also, CRITICALLY important, is to allow yourself 1 or 2 cheat meals a week. they should be completely open, no fears, eat what you want meals, including dessert, etc. This leaves you the opportunity to go to a restaurant with friends, or family occasions, and not feel awkward. Its ok for a celebration to be a celebration. You just can't eat like that every meal And don't attempt to overcompensate on the next meal after a cheat meal. An extra 1500 calories in that one meal is only a 200 calorie a day differece. Its far more important to make sure you are regularly eating and getting the right amount of protein.

As far as the exercize plan, since you are talking to a trainer, I guess you can wait till after he gives you suggestions to come back and we'll critique what he said Otherwise a nice easy plan to follow is the workout plan that is part of the Body For Life program.

http://www.bodyforlife.com/exercise/weighttraining.asp

whats nice about it is that it specifies the days and the body parts, but gives you a menu of exercizes to pick from so you can vary it.

 

[UnslimPickens]

It looks like an ok start. i'd probably try and ditch the shakes if possible, and go with whole food, more egg whites, chicken breasts, etc.

To be honest with you, I actually do the protein shakes to ease into the more "meals" a day. Quite frankly between the M80's appetite suppressants and just not use to 6+ meals a day, the shakes make it a lot easier for me to hit that number. Think of it as I'm using it as a "slim-fast meal shake" rather than anything else.

The example meal that I gave was actually not cut and dry. I've been trying to eat at least 1 salad a day & as a snack I've been doing Organic Peanut butter & celery. Looking at my post again I noticed all I posted was "meat, cheese, and whey", which actually isn't the case.

Thanks for the training link, I think I'm going to try to follow this until the trainer schedules his time with me.

As far as supplements is there anything I should really be taking that currently I am not?

 

[EasyEJL]

the less supplements the better. Don't look at my history but really supplements are just that "supplemental". Get the basics down and working, and only use or change the supplements when things go stagnant for more than 2 weeks. I'd give it at least the first month as is, and get into a regular workout routine, and then we can look at more.

Also, i'm not sure by the way you marked it, are you doing the treadmill interval style or staying at a single speed the whole time?

 

[UnslimPickens]

Actually the way its posted just shows the time & distance. I typically try to keep my heartrate to 127 - 133ish so it steadily goes up as the time increases.

I typically do a mix of increases, when I see my heart rate leveling I will switch between incline & speed. However as you can see, I am quite out of shape so keeping it at that low of a beat is pretty slow speeds (Finishing speed is ~3.1 -> 3.3)

Also with that link that you provided for me, I am going to really shoot for 6 days of gym use, however id prefer to do 6 days with both weights and cardio. How would you split that particular program up into 6 days of weights + cardio?

 

[Iron Warrior]

0 carbs is ridiculous unless maybe you're training for a show. Go for a 40/40/20 split of protein/carbs/fats respectively. You just better make sure you get low GI carbs. I personally like protein shakes with oats when I'm on the go but whole foods are better if you have the luxury of getting all your nutrition from them.

Broccoli is huge because you can eat a ton of it and it's very low in calories. Just don't combine too much broccoli with eggs because you'll unleash some potent nuclear discharges for those around you

 

[EasyEJL]

Also with that link that you provided for me, I am going to really shoot for 6 days of gym use, however id prefer to do 6 days with both weights and cardio. How would you split that particular program up into 6 days of weights + cardio?

Really I wouldn't. Thats part of the concept of using the prebuilt routines, a trainer has come up with them, and they are structured the way they are for a reason. Really though, if you spend an hour of mid-high intensity either cardio or weights per day 6 days in the gym, as far as weight loss goes it doesn't matter so much how its split. As far as strength/muscle gain though it does.

Why would you rather do strength training all 6 days? I've finally managed to get mine down to just 3 days again, and i'm happy about it

 

[pmiller383]

NEPA ( non exercise physical activity) makes a huge difference, walk, shake your leg, even standing goes a long way. And make sure you are sleeping at least 8 a night. these two things will defiantly help more than you would expect.

 

[pmiller383]

Also you might want to take it easy with any stimulants because you will find weight will come off easy now and you don't want to build up a tolerance because they will help you more in the future. Just my opinion though.

 

[UnslimPickens]

I am not really going 0 carb. I am incorporating a decent amount of green veggies / peanut butter. From researching / talking to people most people said to stick to a Atkins p1 - p2 routine, however split between 6+ meals. I will however make it a point to eat broccoli much more often with my "dinner" after I come home from the gym. About the eggs + broccoli, I assure you... there is no way that it is worse than my wife being pregnant.

As far as why would I rather do 6 days of split weights + cardio, because quite frankly cardio is like watching grass grow. I actually enjoy lifting. Therefore a trip to the gym is more "entertaining" when I go to lift first and then do cardio. I could see a long-term problem of getting my fatass to the gym for just cardio on a day (hey at least I'm being honest).

 

[EasyEJL]

I guess your gym doesn't have dvd players attached to the cardio machines? If it does, bring a movie Or a book or magazine? Then the time can be useful in other ways as well, maybe for work. When I cant do that, I have a Zune (down with Apple!) and can load movies on it as well as music, it has a much bigger screen than an ipod video.

Are there any of the machines that you can have fun with? Like I can flip back and forth from bike to rowing machine to elliptical and it breaks it up. Plus the rowing machine is kinda cool too. Swimming counts as cardio too if you do it with some intensity (lying on your back floating doesn't count)

You really can get away with as low as 26 minutes total if you push intensity. 5 warmup, 16 HIIT, 5 cooldown. So that may help if you have to do cardio on its own days.

 

[UnslimPickens]

Also you might want to take it easy with any stimulants because you will find weight will come off easy now and you don't want to build up a tolerance because they will help you more in the future. Just my opinion though.

I'm actually only taking the 1 bottle of them & moreso to regulate my appetite rather than burn fat. Getting to 307lbs means I wasn't quite the light eater per-se. They have really helped in that sense, I get "full" on a lot less the last couple days. Trust me in the past I have bought probably every single "magic pill" on the market, never exercised and hoped to drop 100lbs lol.

After that bottle and the colon cleanse stuff is done I'm not taking either of them for a bit. That was just stuff to start off with. After those are done I'll just be taking a liquid multi & the protein mix.

 

[bassgirl]

My gym doesnt have DVD players, but it has a headphone port we can listen in to one of 5 overhead TV channels with. Plug it in and select .

 

[EasyEJL]

Actually fwiw, portable dvd players with batteries are cheap as dirt anyhow now.

 

[bassgirl]

Actually fwiw, portable dvd players with batteries are cheap as dirt anyhow now.

True, but I always found it awkward carrying mine around with me. It was hassle having to pick it up and take it to every weight machine, and to stop it falling off the eliptical trainer.

I'm going for one of those MP3 armbands next .

 

[UnslimPickens]

I actually use my Moto Q to listen to music / videos while doing cardio. It's actually quite handy, I log my workouts using the DIYworkout program & use the same thing to listen to my music / movies.

I have it loaded up w a 4 gb card so it holds enough info on it to last about a week and then I'll just swap it out. I've already blown through like 8 episodes of South Park on the treadmill

 

[drewh10987]

I agree with all the posts here so far. Good information. Also, I want to congratulate you on making a serious commitment to changing your old ways.

I agree that I would not drop to zero carbs per day, just watch the sources of those carbs, brown rice, oatmeal, vegetables, etc. Also I think it's important to have a carb cutoff time. Try not to consume any carbs after 6 o clock or so. This has really helped me.

Just another thing to remember is to be careful not to drop your caloric intake too low because your body will go into starvation mode and it will actually be counterproductive. I agree with Easy about having a cheat meal once a week if you want. It will help keep you motivated and make it easier to stick to your diet and won't slow your progress.

I don't see a problem with you doing cardio and weights in the same day. It may slow your muscle gain but that isn't your goal here, so I don't see a problem with both. Just make sure if your going to do your cardio after your weight training that you stick to it and don't just say your too tired and go home. Hope that makes sense. Same as how a lot of people save their abdominal work for last and by the time they get to it they don't feel like doing it anymore.

I understand your only planning on taking the stim and fat burner for a short period of time but I'm still not sure that I wouldn't just put the remainder of the bottle aside and save it for later when you will need it more. In the position your in now, just starting a healthy diet and exercising your not going to have any problems seeing progress, but it's your decision.

Congratulations on the baby and on deciding to get in shape and keep us updated on your progress. Everyone here is here for you and wishes you success. Just remember this is a marathon not a sprint. Don't let yourself get discouraged if you hit a few bumps along the way.

 

[bassgirl]

I understand your only planning on taking the stim and fat burner for a short period of time but I'm still not sure that I wouldn't just put the remainder of the bottle aside and save it for later when you will need it more. In the position your in now, just starting a healthy diet and exercising your not going to have any problems seeing progress, but it's your decision.

I lost 55 lbs before I started stims. I am glad I waited. Very glad. I lost my first 30 lbs of it with no exercise! So just take it one step at a time, dont try to change everything at once. Pick one thing to start doing differently each week. And make it a point to read up on something helpful each week, wether its exercise routines, neurotransmitters, or carb loads. etc. Thats your homework .

 

[UnslimPickens]

Thanks for those posts, some good info there. What I might do as far as the stim goes is continue to take the 1 set of 2 30 minutes prior to workout, but skip the two I take when I first wake up. Either that or cut them altogether. I think this weekend I'll try going once without them and see how it goes. To be perfectly honest since I'm so out of shape / heavy, I have about 1 step above 0 energy.

As far as pushing it to the end and getting tired and not completing it. it won't happen. I'm much more likely to skip cardio altogether if I know I'm going there just for that.

Side question, is it alright to you fresh lemon in water occasionally. Drinking over 100oz of water a day it sorta feels like a chore while at work. Mainly because the "filtered" water they have there taste like ****. Is it ok to use a little squeeze of lemon or if not what do you guys use?

 

[drewh10987]

Yea it's perfectly fine to use a little lemon to flavor your water

 

[EasyEJL]

so is crystal light, sugar free koolade, etc. try to take in at lesat some of the water without that if you can tho. probably about 2/3-3/4 of my water I take in unflavored

 

[LilPsychotic]

0 carbs is ridiculous unless maybe you're training for a show. Go for a 40/40/20 split of protein/carbs/fats respectively. You just better make sure you get low GI carbs. I personally like protein shakes with oats when I'm on the go but whole foods are better if you have the luxury of getting all your nutrition from them.

Broccoli is huge because you can eat a ton of it and it's very low in calories. Just don't combine too much broccoli with eggs because you'll unleash some potent nuclear discharges for those around you

First off congratulations on the baby! My girlfriend is due mid june as well. Iron W's right. Low carb diets will get the weight off, but it comes back with avengence as soon as you start eating carbs again. I would get more of a mix of carbs and proteins, and low fat. You've got the meal frequency down (six-ish a day), but you should avoid food within 2 hours before bed. Work out plan looks good, light weight, high rep, and as much cardio as you can handle. And remember its a marathon, not a race. The weight will melt off at first, but then it will become challenging to lose. Don't get discouraged and stay with it, it will work if you can muster up the disipline. Good luck and congrats!

 

[SatireWolf]

I guess your gym doesn't have dvd players attached to the cardio machines? If it does, bring a movie Or a book or magazine? Then the time can be useful in other ways as well, maybe for work. When I cant do that, I have a Zune (down with Apple!) and can load movies on it as well as music, it has a much bigger screen than an ipod video.

Are there any of the machines that you can have fun with? Like I can flip back and forth from bike to rowing machine to elliptical and it breaks it up. Plus the rowing machine is kinda cool too. Swimming counts as cardio too if you do it with some intensity (lying on your back floating doesn't count)

You really can get away with as low as 26 minutes total if you push intensity. 5 warmup, 16 HIIT, 5 cooldown. So that may help if you have to do cardio on its own days.

Dude, if you're cognicent enough to watch a frackin' movie while you're doing cardio, you're not doing cardio. You should be sweating like a mother in child birth, and huffing like a mountain climber jogging mount everest.

If you ain't workin' that hard, you aren't doing cardio, you're taking a stroll.

 

[EasyEJL]

Dude, if you're cognicent enough to watch a frackin' movie while you're doing cardio, you're not doing cardio. You should be sweating like a mother in child birth, and huffing like a mountain climber jogging mount everest.

If you ain't workin' that hard, you aren't doing cardio, you're taking a stroll.

I can maintain concentration enough to read or watch a movie with my heart rate at 180

 

[SatireWolf]

I can maintain concentration enough to read or watch a movie with my heart rate at 180

I can watch the talking heads on CNN, but I can't remember what they were talking about as I start to black out during the extreme portions of the first I in HIIT.

Ie, intensity.

I'm huffing it too hard to watch the heart rate meter

 

[SatireWolf]

I can maintain concentration enough to read or watch a movie with my heart rate at 180

/bow Easy

mad couch potato skills even at the gym. <3

 

[EasyEJL]

I'm just making sure I don't die of a heart attack on a precor crossramp. at 40, thats about as high as is safe to go, cause it spikes above that. I've had it over 190, thats the loosing ability to concentrate on anything but keeping the legs moving, but thats really too high for me still. I guess not too bad for 30 seconds tho. Pretty much any of the methodologies show me as a max of 180. My resting rate at this point tho has dropped, around 56-58 now. so maybe i'm conditioned enough that the risk at 185-190 is low. hard to say

 

[EasyEJL]

i'm saving the dying of a heart attack for when I am 80, in a whorehouse in amsterdam

 

[T H E O R E M]

you can also check this out, TESTOSTERONE NATION - The Cheat to Lose Diet

cheat to lose diet contains a form of carb cycling and cheat days to restore leptin with a full list of foods and recipes, very well outlined, plenty of resources. CHECK THE LINK for info.By far one of the most easily maintainable diets ive tried.

Ive done keto and seen great results but its difficult to eat zero carbs forever...some gain weight back due to inactivity and returning to old eating habits, and slowed metabolism from dieting.

 

[SatireWolf]

I'm just making sure I don't die of a heart attack on a precor crossramp. at 40, thats about as high as is safe to go, cause it spikes above that. I've had it over 190, thats the loosing ability to concentrate on anything but keeping the legs moving, but thats really too high for me still. I guess not too bad for 30 seconds tho. Pretty much any of the methodologies show me as a max of 180. My resting rate at this point tho has dropped, around 56-58 now. so maybe i'm conditioned enough that the risk at 185-190 is low. hard to say

Ahh well I'm a youngin. I guess I have some aging to do.

 

[EasyEJL]

you can also check this out, TESTOSTERONE NATION - The Cheat to Lose Diet

cheat to lose diet contains a form of carb cycling and cheat days to restore leptin with a full list of foods and recipes, very well outlined, plenty of resources. CHECK THE LINK for info.By far one of the most easily maintainable diets ive tried.

Ive done keto and seen great results but its difficult to eat zero carbs forever...some gain weight back due to inactivity and returning to old eating habits, and slowed metabolism from dieting.

along the same lines any TKD or CKD (Lyle McDonald has books on it) or hmm theres another specific author whose name is escaping me right now. definitely leaving some space in the diet for some amount of carbs is a good idea.

 

[UnslimPickens]

So just a 1 week updated (from Sunday - Sunday)

Starting weight on 12/9/07 = 307
Current weight as of 12/16/07 = 296
Total loss: 11 lbs
Days @ gym: 5 (shooting for 6 per week, but I live in NJ and we got slammed with two winter storms this week)
Days I "cheated on diet" = 1 (as per recommended on this post)


Couple side questions for you guys. Aside from doing the standard "body part rotation" is there anyway to condition the muscles in my arms for endurance? I'm not sure if I am wording this correctly, but when I do most exercises (especially one that requires bicep work) my arms just get so tired that it makes it impossible for me to push anymore. It even happens at extremely low weight, where before they "tire" out the weight feels like nothing. I was thinking about walking on the tread mill w. light weights since I don't do HIIT anyway.

Overall so far so good. I already feel a lot better with having some sort of activity in my life. Thanks for all the great replies so far.

 

[EasyEJL]

Well, if you want to start building strenghts, try working out with weights you can only do 4-6 reps with, and do 2 sets of those. so if for instance you are doing curls with 15lbs right now for sets of 15, try doing 20lbs and just try to get 6 in. the heavier weights at lower reps build more strenght faster, which will allow for more endurance over time

 

[UnslimPickens]

EasyEJL - I was reading your post about fish oil. For the situation that I am in (looking to lose high amount of weight + gain some tone / muscle definition) would you recommend me taking fish oil at all? If so what type / how much?

 

[EasyEJL]

fish oil is something everyone should take I think. If you look at man from an evolutionary standpoint, we used to take in TONS more omega 3 + 6 oil than we do in average current diet. I mean to the factor of easily 10-20 times as much. So taking 3-6g each of fish oil and flax oil or CLA a day can make a huge difference overall. The super high fish oil is in its own whole category, has its place as well.

 

[bassgirl]

So taking 3-6g each of fish oil and flax oil or CLA a day can make a huge difference overall.

I get mine from flax seed, and eating fish. What differences can we expect from extra Omega 3 consumption?

I'm watching this thread, b/c I am in kind of the same boat

 

[EasyEJL]

better sense of well being, improved triglycerides + cholesterol levels, overall improved hormone situation