Help, need to get back to normal!

Hi everyone,
First post here, but I've been reading the threads for a while now. So here is my situation. I'm male, 23 years old, 5'8'' 200 pounds, I wear 34" waist pants, and I'm not sure on my body fat %. When I entered college 4 years ago I was 5"7" 155 pounds and ripped. Of course I know my life style since then has changed dramaticaly. In high school I worked out daily and was generaly more active. Thats not to say I'm not active now, I am. I play lots of sports weekly and I try to get to the gym a few times a week. If anything I am much stronger now than I was then. I can easily bench over 100% of my bodyweight and I can still fire off 7 chinups and plenty of dips. So my strength has improved imensely, but I'm just plain old fat now. I've experimented with different lifting routines, but I was in my best shape when I was doing a full body circuit train with 1 day rest inbetween. I was also supplementing with creatine monohydrate. Recently I have gone back to my full body workout with a day off inbetween and I've switched to a creatine ethel ester and n02 combine supplement. On my off day I have started doing plyometrics. Stuff I remember doing when I was playing varsity ice hockey. Sprints, squats, lundges....you know, anything you would do durring a sports conditioning practice. So I guess my big question is diet...I've been taking a fiber supplement daily now for a while, but my caloric intake really fluctuates daily. Due to my schedule somedays I will only have time for one big meal, but others i'll be able to graze all day long. I know the basic formula to loose weight is burn more than you take in. And I know that you have to keep eating or else you slow your metabolism, but there are days where I don't eat much and I'm honestly not hungry. If I'm not hungry I don't force myself to eat because I don't like that feeling, physicaly. Gets me kinda sick actualy.

Anyway I know this post was all over the place and it was really long, but does anyone have any advice for me? My goal is to be down to a trim 170. If that means loosing some muscle mass, I'm fine with that. I really feel that 200 pounds is just too much mass for someone with my frame. I'm really just too big, everywhere. So any advice at all would be much apprecieated.

Thanks everyone!
 
You are going about things all wrong. If you want to starve yourself, loss muscle mass and be unhealthy then, well you don't need us for that go right ahead.

I don't feel that is what you really want to do but when you write this out...
My goal is to be down to a trim 170. If that means loosing some muscle mass, I'm fine with that.
Then i am not to inclined to write out to you a lot of help and neither is anyone else here. So to keep it simple...

Want to do the above quote, well just over workout and starve yourself and good luck.

Want to change you life, understand what is going on with your body and take your health to heart?
Let us know.
 
Theleip - I think the quote you took out may have sounded worse than he intended. I could be wrong but I think what he is saying is that he understands he may loose a little bit of muscle in the long run and he is comfortable with that. It sounds as though he is concerned with his health since he mentions what he can do as far as weights but realizes that he has too much fat on his body.

Welter - One thing that stood out is when you say you are not hungry some days. I despise eating when I feel full also and I want to say that the main reason you may not feel hungry one day is because you overate the day before. You absolutely have to start keeping track of your calories ...figure how much you are eating per day as of now. I'm curious to know as well. I know that in the past when I had my over/under eating habits I was surprised to find out that I overate far more than I underate.

~Nicole
 
Want to do the above quote, well just over workout and starve yourself and good luck.

Yeah, dude you absolutely misunderstood what I was saying, or maybe I did wirte it wrong. Regardless, I'm just saying that 200 pounds is just too much mass for my 5'8" frame. I'm not as agile as I used to be, I can't get up as quickly as I used to, it just feels like I constantly have a 45 pound plate tied to me. Thats all I'm saying. I absolutely want to do this the healthy way, but my main goal here is to loose mass in general. Hopefully it will all be body fat, it's my understanding that in any diet loosing muscle mass in inevitable.

Let me check out this fitday thing and I will start keeping a record of it. I'll add a link to it in my signature so you guys can check it out and offer any advice you have, which of course I am ultra greatful for.

Thanks again!
Kurt
 
Theleip - I think the quote you took out may have sounded worse than he intended. I could be wrong but I think what he is saying is that he understands he may loose a little bit of muscle in the long run and he is comfortable with that. It sounds as though he is concerned with his health since he mentions what he can do as far as weights but realizes that he has too much fat on his body.

Nicole, it was late and I just read it in a completely different tone I guess. Thank you for pointing it out. Sometimes dealing with 'why didn't i lose 10 pounds this week!?' some days can put you on defensive. :eek:
 
Ok, I opened up a fitday account and posted the summary page link in my signature. Thanks for the help everyone, lets make this work!

Well now I will be all over to help, sorry for previous confusion on my part.

Okay first off some things to note on your previous post.

You stated this...
And I know that you have to keep eating or else you slow your metabolism, but there are days where I don't eat much and I'm honestly not hungry. If I'm not hungry I don't force myself to eat because I don't like that feeling, physicaly. Gets me kinda sick actualy.

When you don't take in the right amount of food or starve yourself, you trigger natural appetite suppressants. In short you should be hungry if you are cutting your calories right. If you don't wake up starving, you are doing something wrong;)

As far as what calories you need to be taking in, try and get you a real sound estimate to work from by using this formula. Harris Benedict Equation

You want to work in a 15 to 30% deficit of you end number with included activity.

So now that you have a number to work towards to judge and see how it works, you need to get what you are going to be taking in down.

Read this article and it pretty much sums it up for you and it keeps it short.
John Berardi - 7 Habits

Last your routine.

You need a solid full body program for resistance training this way may you don't have to lose that muscle. 2-3 days a week of heavy compound movements. 2-3 days a week of some aerobic training (maybe interval work).

If you feel overwhelmed by designing your own program then I highly recommend New Rules of Lifting. Best 18 bucks you can spend for great program design. Amazon.com: New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle: Books: Lou Schuler,Alwyn Cosgrove

If you have any specific questions after this, let us know.
 
You want to work in a 15 to 30% deficit of you end number with included activity.

Ok, according to this website I should be getting around 3100 calories a day. So a 30% deficit would equal out to be 930 calories meaning I should be eating around 2170 calories a day. Does this sound right?
 
Correct. Going lower than this wouldn't be recommended. I would even think of bouncing your deficit. Days you strength training take it a little higher say 15% and on rest days work at a solid 30%.

Either way you aren't in a dangerous area caloric wise and mixed with training should preserve and maybe even gain a little muscle.
 
Ok, thanks for the help. I guess my other question is about protein shakes. I've been taking protein and glutamine for a while, but it seems like I just get heavy with them. Are they fit to be a meal replacement? I also don't like to take post workout shakes because I don't feel right after. Also, wouldn't you burn more calories if you didn't have a post workout shake because your body is already in a heightened metabolic state, and it would be forced get fuel from your body rather than a post workout protein shake?
 
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