[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by UnslimPickens

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.