Beginner requesting help

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After gaining some weight from inactivity due to injury, I decided to make an effort to get into what I consider "fit" shape for the first time in my life. Nothing extreme, I just wanted to look better and gain some endurance for sports purposes. I purchased an elliptical and am doing about 35 minutes of varying intensity workout on it every day. Between that and cutting back on junk food I've lost about 9 pounds so far. I'm now 20 years old, 6 feet tall, and 181 pounds. What I'm trying to do at this point is find out what I can do to take it a step further and get rid of the remaining flab I've got. My diet varies from day to day, but I'll usually skip breakfast due to time, eat a grilled chicken sandwich or something similar for lunch at work, whatever I can get my hands on that's decent for dinner, and a bowl of cereal in the evenings. Not knowing the first thing about nutrition, I'm just trying to consume fewer calories and work out daily. So far, that's been working fairly well.

What I'd like to do now is research what changes I can make to further my progress. I have also been looking into various supplements that may aid in weight loss. Any suggestions that anyone can provide for diet, workout routine, or supplements is greatly appreciated. In the future I may change my goals, but at this point I just want to trim fat as much as possible.

Thanks
 
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Breakfast

I can give you one bit of advice, start eating breakfast. It is probably the most important meal of the day. I'm sure others on this forum will chip in, but I can tell you breakfast is vital.
 
Yep, definitely eat breakfast. There are a lot of other things you can change with your diet if you are serious about getting in shape (eat more frequently, don't eat cereal at night,etc).

For supplements I would recomment just taking a multivitamin.

In terms of working out you need to also strength train for a variety of reasons. It strengthens your bones, raises your metabolism, all kinds of stuff!

~teresa
 
1) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day. Each meal should be 2-3 hours apart. Each meal should contain one protein and one carb. The first meal should be eaten within an hour after waking.


2) Drink lots of water :)


3) Rest properly. This means taking at least 24-48 hours between strength training the same muscles, and it also means getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Lastly, it means taking 1-2 days off from exercising per week.


4) Cardio. This should be done at different intensity levels and different session lengths. Consider doing a low intensity/long session, a high intensity/short session and a few medium intensity/medium length sessions.


5) Strength Training. Strength train each muscle 1-3 times per week. You should lift a proper weight and perform the proper amount of sets/reps for your strength training method.


All of the above things combined will result in fat loss.
 
Basically divide you calorie allowance a day by 5 or 6. so lets say for your height,weight and age you supplied, you need about 2700 calories a day to KEEP you at the weight you are now. So take about 500 off of that since you are trying to lose weight. Leaving you with 2200 calories allowed in a day.
Divide that by 5 (for 5 meals) giving you 440 each meal. Each meal should have 1 protien and one carb (towards the end of the day try and get fiberious carbs instead of starchy one). So these mini meals can be quite big, the better of foods you select to eat the more of them you can eat.

Example: for 440 you can have A chicken sandwich form chick fi la. Cover in bad stuff on a white bun.

or

Sweet potatoes with Chicken breast with green beans and a side of lightly glazed light brown sugar almonds. Actually the way cook it, thats under 440.

So start hunting around, figure out what you like, what you can cook, start to understand the joy of herbs and spices, and trust me, I eat more now than i ever did and have lost 13 pounds, the right way, and the way that if i decide i want to have me some cake, its not going to shock my system into massive fat storage.

Best advice i can offer is bulk cooking on the days you can so that you have good stuff to take to work, you dont get lazy and just get some take out. I bulk cook once every 4 days (my chicken, tuna dishes, lean meat patties) and most of my time is spent pressing the min button on the microwave for the rest of the week.

Good luck.
 
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