Let's try this again

So I've been extraordinarily lazy lately. I've had excuses, but that's all they are, excuses. I've got it set in my head to do this. I've set a goal of 10% body fat in the next 12 weeks. I've ordered calipers for accurate measurements, but from my last testing it was around 35%.

Here's my workout plan...

Monday - Wednesday - Friday
Ride bike to work (about 4 miles each way with hills)

Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday
Weight training at gym alternating areas on different days. Chest-Shoulders, Legs, Arms-Backs.

Food
----------

8am:

Bagel and 8oz Skim Milk
w/ supplements and vitamins

10am:

Myoplex Shake with Flax Seed Oil

12pm:

Chicken caesar salad

3pm:

Myoplex Shake with Flax seed oil

7pm:

Chicken breast
Brown rice
Green beans

9pm:

Low fat fruit yogurt

I get off work around 5pm. The food is based on what's realistic for me to make and/or get without giving up. I'm a convenience food person which is why I got where I'm at. I know a lot of you are going to scream that I'm doing this all wrong, but I'm not like you guys. I can't spend all day in the gym and eat tuna fish every day.

I'm no expert but I suggest you forget the diet part and just do more exercise. The diet part seems like alot of work and i'm sure that puts you down as it is hard enough. You just need to avoid saturated fatties and the like. Just do more exercise and the fat will be burnt. :shrug:

You want to be at 10% body fat in the next 12 weeks? I hope you meant 12 months. I'm no expert but I think your goal is a bit high.

You want to be at 10% body fat in the next 12 weeks? I hope you meant 12 months. I'm no expert but I think your goal is a bit high.
No. I want to LOSE 10% of my current bodyfat. AKA, get down to ~25%

If you're taking the Flax Seed oil for omega3's, I would recommend using Fish Oil instead or in conjunction with the flax seed oil. Look for Enteric coated EPA/DHA fish oils.

You can find them at Sam's Club(Member's Mark), Costco(Kirkland's I think), or order online. I've got a few good fish oil cap brand recommendations if you need to order online.

Also, milled flax seed will provide fiber as well as the essential fats you're looking for.

P.S. I hope you got a lot more variety of foods planned out and this is maybe just a sample of your daily intake. Your first and last meals are also missing protein.

I see a lot of simple carbs in that diet. bagel? even a whole wheat bagel (is there such a thing) has gotta have a pretty high GI.

switch to oatmeal IMO. and the fruit in that yogurt sounds like a bad idea.

also that doesnt look like a lot of food. are you sure that is an appropriate amount of calories?

also a good idea can be instead of having a "back and arms" day, do triceps the same day as chest and biceps the same day as back. make sure you are doing rotator cuff exercises on those shoulder day!

Yeah, Id switch the bagel to a piece of whole wheat bread.

Good luck with it all, try not to sabotage yourself... God knows I sabotaged myself this weekend hardcore.

I'm no expert but I suggest you forget the diet part and just do more exercise. The diet part seems like alot of work and i'm sure that puts you down as it is hard enough. You just need to avoid saturated fatties and the like. Just do more exercise and the fat will be burnt. :shrug:


What in holy hell? Forget the diet part? This is by far the worst advice I have ever heard in my life.

If you forget the diet part, then you are wasting your time exercising.

I see a lot of simple carbs in that diet. bagel? even a whole wheat bagel (is there such a thing) has gotta have a pretty high GI.

switch to oatmeal IMO. and the fruit in that yogurt sounds like a bad idea.

also that doesnt look like a lot of food. are you sure that is an appropriate amount of calories?

also a good idea can be instead of having a "back and arms" day, do triceps the same day as chest and biceps the same day as back. make sure you are doing rotator cuff exercises on those shoulder day!
Noted. What are good rotator cuff exercises?

Lets see.

300 pounds, 10% bodyfat is going to be 30 pounds of fat. That's 105,000 calories you need to burn in 12 weeks, so you need to burn off 1250 Cal/Day.

Your metabolic rate, unassisted, will be around 2800Cal/Day. With exercise that can shoot up to around 4000Cal/Day plus what you burn in exercise. So it's feasible at least that if you record your diet and exercise right and work it hard, you can get there.

It's actually 122,469 calories, but whatever. Science isn't your thing, so I understand.

It's actually 122,469 calories, but whatever. Science isn't your thing, so I understand.

How'd you figure?

30 lbs is 13,607.7711 grams

1 gram of fat contains 9 calories

9 x 13,607.7711 = 122,469.94

Math is neat huh?

don't really have much to say aside from whats already been said, but good luck :bigthumb:

also an f.y.i. I think most yogurt has high fructose corn syrup in it, which, even though its probably a small amount, some people don't like that in their diets either.

And your diet doesnt look like very many calories, Id switch to the oatmeal in the morning as someone else suggested and use the fish oil pills as well. I use the members mark one from Sam's club, they are giant bottles for about 11 bucks, good deal.

I know a lot of you are going to scream that I'm doing this all wrong, but I'm not like you guys. I can't spend all day in the gym and eat tuna fish every day.

This part alone makes me hope you fail, but good luck none the less.

I think you need to get more exercise unless you're going to really bike your ass off. Biking 24 miles a week isn't a lot of activity. Maybe you could try it 5 days a week after a while.

Also, I am not sure what your lifting program is, but I think a 3 day/body part split is unnecessarily complex. Check out the Rippetoe program in the useful resources sticky. It's a great beginner program you can do in 40-60 minutes, 3 exercises a day.

The workouts that are working for me are m-w-f rippetoe's 3x5. t-th I go to the gym and do ~30-45 minutes of cardio at high intensities. Then I try to play a sport or go out and run one day of the weekend. If I have extra time I'll fit in more cardio where I can.

4miles on a bike to and from work seem like too little cardio. Do the rippetoe's program because the compound lifts will kick your ass and give you a great workout that still burns a ton of calories.

30 lbs is 13,607.7711 grams

1 gram of fat contains 9 calories

9 x 13,607.7711 = 122,469.94

Math is neat huh?

http://www.tinajuanfitness.info/articles/111803.htm



The doctor's computation is logical and correct because one gram of fat is equal to nine calories but 3,500 calories is also correct because of other factors. Here is the explanation from Dr. Patrick Bird of the University of Florida's College of Health and Human Performance

"When we burn fat, or other nutrients, heat is produced, which is measured in calories. Each gram of fat generates 9 calories, and 454 grams equals one pound. But a pound of fat is not all fat. It's about 10% water. All of our body tissues--fat, muscle, bone, skin--contain some water. And water has zero calories.

"In addition, not all the nutrients we eat are completely absorbed from the digestive tract to meet metabolic needs. In the case of fat, roughly 5% is eliminated in the feces. This 10% water content and 5% non-absorbed fat accounts for the 15% difference between the calculated 4086 calories and the actual 3500 calories in a pound of fat."

The doctor's email got me to thinking about how people are always talking about calories but many don't really know what a calorie is, where it comes from, how it is measured, etc. So here are some calorific facts.

The real question is, Ptavv, do you want to get into a big nerdy bullshitting war in Colossus's thread? I don't think he'd appreciate that. :)

You will see results no matter what you do, to be honest.... but your fat loss will be greatly accelerated if you just forget about weight training and set your goal to 40-60 minutes of slow, steady cardio, 6 days a week.

I constantly bulk up to 190-200 lbs, and then slim back down to 165-170. I have tried all sorts of fat burning routines, but the most effective by far, is 40-60 minutes of SLOW cardio, 6 days a week. I typically lose 6 lbs per week, on average.

Oh also, in your case, I would forget about that 12 week goal. In my experience, obese people who put time limits on their fitness goals are the most likely to quit. Healthy diet and exercise should be a permanent part of your life, not just some little health vacation you feel like taking for a while.

Slow and steady definitely wins the race when it comes to getting back into shape.

Doing it for 60-90 minutes would be even more effective ReaL.

Road into work today. Felt good. Took about 25 minutes.

Everything that I've read says you get diminutive returns and can actually go backwards beyond 75 minute workouts.