Help needed!

A

Alpen

0
Sorry this is a re-post as I somehow managed to put it in the womans health section to start with :D



This is it. I've decided my weight has begun to be a massive problem for me and it has to be sorted. I joined the gym recently but still had a lot of stuff going on at work. Now that has finished and i have plenty time to go so tomorrow will be my official start. I've tried looking around several sites but trying to decipher the information on my own is pretty difficult with so much to take in. I'm really putting it out to you to make me programs if I'm being honest. It's not that I don't want to be able to but more that I don't have a clue what I should be doing/looking at.


Now I've aimed to do this for a while but today I've been feeling upbeat about the change it will have on me. I have lost a lot of my confidence over the past 18 months where I have really put on weight, I used to be in great shape and played football and rugby every week. This was ended when I developed shin splints, I would fight through the pain during games and was sometimes left unable to walk the next day even after coming home to ice them immediately after games. Eventually I gave up both rugby and football which has really led to my weight problem.


I really am clueless with what I've meant to be doing when I go though and that's where you come in. Hopefully you can give me programs for training, firstly i want to lose the weight but ideally tone the muscles at the same time. If anyone has any good dieting ideas that would help I'd be greatful too. I'm gonna keep this thread as a diary of my progress and hope it will spur me on. I know I will hit difficult times and thats when I'll look back on it and see what I've achieved so far. This time I AM going to do it.


I have set myself an aim of 182 pounds by 1st July 2007. This may not seem a lot but considering I currently weigh in at 252 I think that may be a step too far. However I am going to give it my best shot. This is the first thing I need feedback on, would this kind of drastic weight loss be possible in this time period? If not then what would be a suitable target for this time?


Thats all I can think of at the moment so I'll wait for some responses on my goals/programs unless I remember something else I've missed out

Cheers
 
Congrats on your decision, your story has been told here a hundred times so search the threads in this forum, LOTS of info. You FIRST need to look at your diet, then complement that with excersize. You can work out all you want but if you don't fix your diet, you will not make much progress.

Got to a website like fitday.com, and find out how much your eating daily, then work on cutting that down to about 500 calories less than recommended for your height. This will put you in a caloric deficit, which means that you will begin to loose weight. You want to develop a goot excersize program that works well for you (lots of examples here) to maintain your muscle as you drop the weight. Goals are good but keep in mind that about a pound a week is all that is recommended while losing weight. Any more than that and your body may not adapt leaving you prone to a quick gainback.

Start with that, good luck!
 
Everything Beckton said, plus...

You can't go wrong if you keep your diet to the things on list. I appreciate that that will make for a boring as bat**** experience, so why not allow yourself one 'cheat' meal per week say every Sunday?

Lots of info on training here, one big thing first though, how are your shins these days? It might be worth, when you come to reading about HIIT, doing it in a swimming pool. I can appreaciate that it feels embarrassing and slightly humiliating walking around half nude when you don't think overly much of yourself, but you must start at some point, and you will change your body composition!!

In all honesty 70lbs might be a little bit of a stretch, although you will find that in the early days weight just seems to fall off straight away. I dropped fifty pounds (roughly) in one year through fundamental changes, mainly cutting portion sizes, trying to get more good foods in (I didn't have any of these resources on this site at the start) and getting some exercise.

Are you a gym member, or do you have access to free weights (not machines!)?

EDIT: You might want to post another thread concerning diet and weightloss in the ladies nutrition or weight loss section. I'm not taking the piss, but you have a better chance of some of the girls on the site like Lynn, leip or derwydonnnynndon (never remeber that damn name!!) seeing it a pitching in too. The guys in here will help with lifting questions, like routines and form etc.
 
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Try to pick up a copy of the book "The New Rules of Lifting" by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. It explains a lot, and it has several different programs that you could try. It also has a step by step walkthrough of a year long program. Very good read, and judging by your goals, I think it would work great for you.

Diet is key though, but I'll let the others, and the search function, take care of that. It doesn't take long to read at all.... definitely give it a try!
 
Quick update

Been going to the gym for 2 weeks now and getting the hang of it. Starting to enjoy going as well and when I leave i have such a buzz about changing myself for the better. Have yet to get to work properly on the diet but have cut down on the amount of rubbish I eat and intend to look at this properly ready to start next Monday (I have a night out this weekend which has been planned for months so feel it would be a waste to start for 4 days).

On the weight side of thing I have managed to lose 6 pounds so far and am obviously delighted with this. Hopefully I can keep it up especially with my diet changing too.
 
Hi again,

I'm hoping for some help this time if possible. Still been going to the gym and cutting down on the drink recently. I aim to only drink at Christmas and New Year over the next few months. One problem I have is the fact I don't really know what specific machines are good for my workouts.

I'm hoping someone can make me up 3 pretty simple schedules (Obviously not the weight I should be lifting as I'll fill that in myself). I'd like an upper body, lower body and a cardio one if possible. I'm going to continue going to the gym 6 days a week but I'm hoping to carry out the cardio 3 times as I'll double up my Saturday morning session with either lower/upper body.

I know this is probably quite a bit to ask but I'm hoping someone is bored enough to help a fat chap out ;)

Cheers
 
Right I've been at the gym tonight and took a note of the machines I used in order to get some feedback from people who know what they are talking about. I started with a 15 minute warm up on the cycling machine and then tried to work my upper body with the following:

Low Row:- 12 x 3 sets
Chest Press:- 12 x 3 sets
Chest Incline:- 12 x 3 sets
Lat Machine:- 12 x 3 sets
Arm Extend:- 12 x 3 sets

A few questions regarding this,

i) Is that enough or should I add another machine or 2?
ii) Should all these machines be used in one session or should I mix it up?
 
Argh run come save me the machines are coming I tell thee!

Are there any free weights in the gym?

Its hard to start when your puny and everyone else is ripped but they started someplace too :)

Well you are doing two chest exercises and two back exercises, which is something of a no-no.

You need to build your routing somehow.

Either do three fullbody workouts per week with your focus on big compound moves or break it up into what is known as splits i.e. working 'complimentary' muscle groups on different days, say four or five times per week.

Everyone is going to bark about fullbodies and then I'm going to come back and say its wrong :cool:

Consider it a headsup ;)
 
There are free weights available in the gym yeah.

I'm not sure if you missed the first post but I'm far from puny :) I used to lay rugby and still have a bit of strength but its covered by all the fat.

What exercises would you recommend instead of 2 back/chest? Why is this considered a no-no?

I don't know what building my routing means either, sorry but I really am totally new to all this. When I played rugby it was just a case of going in the gym and doing as much as I could on the machines, more of a competition between us if you will so didn't even know what I was doing then. The club had a gym so it was always empty and easily accesible to us during the week. I was only 17/18 so never really took it seriously, how I wish I had now.
 
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