Brand New, Looking For A Little Help

rabidrat

rabidrat

New member
Hey all I just joined up, mainly because I just found the site. I am still getting my footing around here, so I haven't discovered everything this site has to offer yet. A little bit about me, I am 30 yrs. old and I am trying to keep my weight loss going.

Back in December, I was having chest pains pretty badly, I went to the doctor and he hooked me up to an EKG and did some stress tests and well long story short, he told me I was fat. I started off primarily dieting, starting in February i started working out. I am now up to working out 7 days a week. When I started I was 310lbs. and last I checked I was 257lbs. So I have lost around 50lbs, but I am trying to get under 200lbs. by October. It is my 6th wedding anniversary and we are going on a cruise in the Caribbean, so I want to look good for my wife!

Currently I am dieting somewhat. I eat very healthy the first 2/3rds of the day, and then eat a regular dinner. Although I don't count every calorie, I do keep an eye on calories and I usually keep it under 600 until dinner. I work out at least an hour a day, about 45 minutes of cardio and about 15 minutes of high rep low weight lifting. The main reason I am on here is because it appears that I have hit a plateau, I haven't lost any weight in a few weeks, so I am looking for some new ideas to help me loose weight again!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
 
Congrats on the results so far, awesome!

You might want to commit to a more healtier diet. At least start by being honest to yourself about how many calories your dinner is.

I used to think similarly about not counting calories so much and having normal meals (because I was doing so good the rest of the day, I could let up a little round dinnertime right?), but finally faced the fact that I was not counting calories because i knew it was too much, and I knew I had to change what I eat for dinner as well.
When I started I thought I could achieve my goal with portion control, but I found out it 's better to change what you eat, rather than how much you eat.

Are you doing the same cardio workouts day in and day out? Perhaps a little variation could help as well.
Alternate interval workouts with recovery workouts (like a nice long (stationary)bike ride.
 
Well done so far,

I agree with Guideon, some variation with the cardio sessions might help. Don't be afraid to mix it up a bit.
Try short intervals of high intensity efforts, followed by a longer recovery, so it might be 30 sec of jump lunges
followed by 60 sec active rest (don't just stand there) repeated 10 times. Without knowing how fit you are, it is impossible to say exactly. Change the set to suite yourself......as with any new exercise, start slow.....for variations maybe 30 sec is too short or too long.....vary the recovery.....is 60 sec too long or too short.
The efforts need to be hard enough, so that when you reach the 25 sec mark in each effort, you are beginning to tire, and will get progressively harder.

Be careful with any exercise that will put a lot of stress on joints, remember you are still 250 lbs.
You could replicate these types of efforts on a stationary bike......my tips would be to firstly set up the bike to fit your
size. That is make sure the saddle height is sufficient so that when you reach the bottom of each revolution, your knee is almost straight.....that is a rough guide only, maybe seek advise in your gym if you feel uncomfortable.
Now for best interval training select a gear (resistance) that will allow you to spin at 85-95 revs/min (most good spin bikes have this capability) and if they don't, then you can simply COUNT....and remember count one leg only.
So maybe 30 sec hard followed by 60-90 sec recovery, repeated 10-15 times.....see what you can handle.
The rev count is VERY important here, as once again each effort needs to become difficult after 25 sec, and the tendency will be to SLOW. Don't expect to get it right first time......and don't over do it, this exercise done correctly WILL produce lactic acid build up, and to which you will have very little tolerance. Pushing too hard, could make you ill.

The Important Points are.....

1. Set up bike
2. Warm up for 5 min and include some fast spinning efforts.
3. Select right resistance (you must be able to complete about 45 rev/30 sec , and not too many more)
4. Recover after each effort.....so that you can go HARD again.
5. Finish off with 5 min spin down....will help to absorb lactic acid.

and 6. Do Not do this two days in a row......if you can, well then you didn't GO HARD Enough the first day.

Hope you achieve your goal.
 
I think that it can be a good idea every so often to count literally every calorie of the day for a week... Check and analyse your nutrition and see exactly where you are with levels of protein, fibre, sodium, calcium etc... See what RDAs you are hitting and which ones you are failing to hit. It can be really easy to think that your calories and everything else is totally on track when it isnt...

This has helped me to get things moving in the past when things have got a bit stuck.
 
Thanks so much for the great advice, sorry I thought the forums would email me when I received a reply but it turns out they don't. I am planning on starting to track everything closer, I get a new phone one Friday and I was thinking of using the myfitnesspal app. Unless there is a better one out there. As for the stationary bikes, I just can't stand them only equipment in the whole gym I can't get into. But I'll give this a shot.
 
Hi! Wow firstly losing 50lbs is GREAT!
I also think it's good you have a regular dinner, I know people who start dieting by barely eating anything marginally unhealthy and within a few days they relapse!
I'd recommend drinking a lot of water, especially before exercise it helps burn calories! In regards to actual exercise intensity worked the best for me losing weight - you cram a lot of hard work with no breaks into 20 minutes, and it burns the same/more calories than a couple of hours at the gym, you can see the change in your body pretty quickly too, I noticed within 3 weeks there was definitely a change! I do the 30 day shred by Jillian Michael's, it should just be on youtube if you don't want to pay, it's hard work but the results are great!
I hoped I helped in some way, and good luck for your weight loss, and enjoy your cruise!
 
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