Am I doing enough?

MakeItHappen

MakeItHappen

New member
Hey guys, just wanted to hear some opinions on my "routine". I'm 28yo, 5'11", 270lb, broad build.
You can see my pics here: http://weight-loss.fitness.com/before-after-between/18456-my-first-before-pics.html

I'm trying to lose weight and currently I have worked my way up from jogging 1mi 3 days a week (kind of struggling) to jogging/running about 2.5 miles a day 5-6 days a week. When I jog I keep a good pace, considerably faster than walking and I am working up a good sweat. Every other day I do a range of 3 separate routines of push ups as well (wide, regular and narrow). I'd like to get to the gym on top of jogging but I'm finishing my Bsme (Bach. in Mechanical Engineering) and school work takes up a huge amount of my time.


I'm strictly sticking to about 1700-2000 calories a day and writing everything down. I don't drink soda at all and I don't drink juice. Sometimes I drink fat free milk but mostly water. I don't really feel hungry during the day outside of what I'm eating now, if I do I usually will eat carrots or vegetables etc...


Basically my question is, do you think this is enough to provide adequate loss or do I need to step it up quite a bit further? I could probably run further but I don't want to over due it and have my body go into "reverse" mode and store fat. So what do you guys/ladies think would be a good plan of action?
 
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I'd add in more strength training - check the workout thread in this forum - and you'll get some ideas...

for 270lbs - your calorie range seems a bit low to me... especially with all the cardio you're doing

are you using any type of program to keep track of your nutrients? like or one of he many other free oneson the web?

What does your actual food plan look like?
 
You're body isn't going to go into 'reverse mode' unless you start eating more than your body requires.

Is what you're doing enough?

On that caloric intake and that exercise regimen, you should be dropping a decent amount of weight.

Eventually, as Mal stated, you'll want to throw more weight training into the mix.
 
CALORIES

According to the BMR calculator, your sedentary (before workouts) BMR would be 2,900 calories expended per day. It sounds like each of your workouts is at least 300 calories (very conservative), so you are expending at least 3,200 calories per day and eating an average of 1,850 calories per day.

[edited] This comes out to a weekly weight loss of 2.7 pounds which is within 1% of total body weight per week. You may want to consider a slower pace however. I tend to think that the slower you lose the weight, the better for long-term success (numerous studies). If you find yourself slipping (semi-binge eating or stopping your workout schedule, or both), definitely slow your weight loss (add calories). I've done this (I weigh 200#, started out at 1400 calorie eating and 450 calorie workouts [2#/week weight loss], now at 1800 eating and 300 workouts [1.5#/week target]). Be flexible.

You could add calories if you wished. So if you want to lose 2.0 pounds/week, eat a minimum of 2,200 calories/day. Or if you can be patient enough for 1.5 pounds/week, eat a minimum of 2,450 calories/day. Whatever you do, continue to get your calories the healthy way.


EXERCISE

It sounds a bit like you weren't in very good cardio shape before you started working out. I would stick with what you are doing. You don't need to increase calories spent for at least a couple of months. If the treadmill you use has HR monitors, I would go fast enough to keep your HR above 160, but not so fast that it goes above 180.

After two more months, once your cardio system is built up then you may want to think about doing some High Intensity Interval Training and/or weight training. HIIT is basically a series of wind sprints and research shows that it can be better at preserving muscle mass and is definitely better at improving athleticism than straight steady-state cardio. If I were you, I wouldn't get wound up about HIIT for a while (so you don't jump into it too early and injure yourself), so mark your calendar to investigate it in two months time.
 
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1% of total body weight is a good goal to have in terms of weight loss.

And the larger you are, not taking the psychology of it all into consideration, the more aggressively you can diet.
 
paydirt said:
Ahh, cool. I will edit my post.
Click to expand...

No need to edit it.... it gives him something to think about.

Just b/c someone can physiologically handle that rate of weight loss, that doesn't mean they can psychologically handle it.

It's a very individual thing.
 
Steve said:
1% of total body weight is a good goal to have in terms of weight loss.

And the larger you are, not taking the psychology of it all into consideration, the more aggressively you can diet.
Click to expand...

the 1 percent guideline is the one I've followed pretty much my entire journey -at my heaviest....

From personal experience, though, I'm still not a fan of too low a calorie plan - and too low is entirely individual I suppose - but the 'wiggle' room i wax poetic about occassionally I think is important.. better to be as high as possible in your calories than too low..
 
maleficent said:
the 1 percent guideline is the one I've followed pretty much my entire journey -at my heaviest....

From personal experience, though, I'm still not a fan of too low a calorie plan - and too low is entirely individual I suppose - but the 'wiggle' room i wax poetic about occassionally I think is important.. better to be as high as possible in your calories than too low..
Click to expand...

The thing is, the metabolic slowdown associated with dieting isn't going to really happen when someone has a lot of weight to lose.

So ASSUMING they are psychologically able to handle a *big* deficit.... why shouldn't they?

Granted, the psychology of it all is a crazy important factor. If they aren't the type to handle that type of thing well and the after effects well.... they shouldn't do it. I'd say most would be better suited following something more sane than a very big deficit.

However, almost all the obese people I've worked I've put on more aggressive diets, calorically speaking, than what I would otherwise have instituted for someone not obese.
 
maleficent said:
What does your actual food plan look like?
Click to expand...

Well for example my last two days were like (these were on the upper caloric side of what I've been eating so this is like worst case scenario):

Spread out over Day 1:
2 Low fat string cheese 100 cal
1 srv corn +1 can of soup+1 srv red. fat cheeze-its 470 cal
3 hardboiled eggs 210 cal
2 whole grain toast/I can't believe it's not butter 230 cal
Carrots+light sour cream 80 cal
2 srv corn 160 cal
1 can soup 180 cal
2 srv cheeze its 260 cal
2 pickle spears 10 cal
6 pieces of lean turkey bacon 150 cals
Lots of water
Total cal = 1850
Exercise = Jogged 9 laps at track (2.25 miles)


Spread out over day 2:
Toast/butter - 130 cal
Soup - 300 cal
cheez it's- 150 cal
string cheeze - 50 cal
Chicken stir fry - 540 cal
Vegetables - 30 cal
soup/chz it/vegetables - 385
whole grain Bread/cheese - 190
cheeze its 150 cal
vegetables/sour cream 75
Lots of water
Total: 2000
Exercise = Jogged 10 laps at track (2.5 miles)

If it makes a difference I always jog outdoors, at the track.
I have also started doing push ups and sit ups. I can generally get through 3 sets of 20 push ups with a 30sec rest between each set and do about 50 situps.


P.s- Again, I used these two days as they were on the up side of my caloric intake. Reason being is the last two nights I have been really hungry around 11pm and thats where a few of the extra calories come in. I know I shouldn't be eating late night and I'm trying to break that habit but the urge has been really strong the last two nights so i have tried to just drink a bunch of water and only eat veggies or some crackers. I usually exercise around 4-7pm and find I don't get tired for bed until around 12 or so, I wake up at 7am.

P.P.S- I'm going grocery shopping today, any suggestions? I know I'm probably going to have a few holes in my listed diet so to speak, (cheeze it's for example, lol). Maybe something that could help with late night hunger?
 
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Thanks for the link! Do you guys/ladies see anything thats missing from my old "meal plan"? I don't mean to hunt for it like "Where's Waldo", I mean is there any major group that is missing?
 
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Not enough protein. Not enough essential fats.

But instead of stabbing in the dark, why not plug it into fitday.com or calorieking.com?
 
yep. If you want to be more optimal, what you can do is get rid of or eat all your prepacked foods (like Cheezits) and not rebuy them or buy them on a limited basis. Add stuff like chicken breasts (not chicken breast slices), maybe pork chops, white-colored fish meat (not salmon as a regular staple), almonds (13 almonds = 100 calories and a good source of fat), avocado (1/2 avocado = 100 calories), beans and edamame (baby soy beans) are a food source of fiber fat & protein. I don't really do beans since I'm high enough in fiber.
 
You need to add resistance training. That will increase your lean body mass. MBM buns more calories at rest than does fat. Your basal metabolic rate will be raised, allowing you to burn more calories throughout the day, even when you're not training. Resistance training has been shown to be more effective for fat loss than cardio, and it allows you to train for a shorter duration. That should be important, given your school situation. Swapping some resistance training for cardio will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your fat burning regimen.

Hope this helps,
BigFatLoser
 
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