Hi

[omerc10696]

Hi, my name is Oscar. I'm 5'9" and I was 275 lbs up until July when I turned 26 and decided I've been over weight for far too long and that i was finally time to make a change. I've been overweight since I was 8.

I started exercising daily and counting calories, as of today I am 243 lbs and continuing to drop about 1/2 - 1 pound a day. I eat between 1800 and 2200 calories a day alternating my caloric intake, and doing about 2 hours of cardio a day (treadmill, cross ramp, and swimming).

My goal is to be 180 lbs before the end of the year.

 

[ktw22689]

Good luck! Keep up the great work. My only suggestion would be to to reduce it to 1 hour of cardio and then 1 hour of muscle strengthening with weights and what not for abs arms and legs! you will see results even faster! Because once you lose all that weight you want it to be replaced with muscle..you dont wanna have to lose all the weight and THEN go back and build all the muscle back.

Also, you might see faster results staying under 2000 calories. Because normal daily intake for people is around 2000 so people trying to lose weight should stay under it.

Good Luck! I look forward to hearing about more of your success

 

[KaraCooks]

Welcome to the board.

I am concerned about your goals and your methods. What you're doing may result in quick weight loss, but either you're going to stall out very soon as you damage your metabolism, or, when you can't keep up this program you've set for yourself, you'll gain it all back and then some.

First of all, losing a pound a day is a dangerously fast rate of loss. Planning to lose 65 lbs in less than 6 months is unrealistic and unhealthy. A healthy and sustainable rate is to average 1% of your bodyweight per week. For you that would mean about 2 - 2.5 lbs per week. At that rate, you should reach your goal weight SAFELY by the middle of March of next year.

Next, with all respect, the advice of the person above with regard to calorie intake is not only wrong, but unhealthy. Dropping below 2000 calories at your weight would be an extreme calorie reduction and could result in slowing your metabolism far enough that your weight loss stalls out. At your weight, your daily calorie intake to be healthy and safe is about 2500 calories a day.

However, the advice to add strength training is a good one. 2 hours a day of cardio is excessive, and it also doesn't help you maintain lean muscle mass. (And, long term, are you prepared to keep up 2 hours of cardio a day for the rest of your life? Probably not.) You should cut back on the cardio and begin incorporating some strength training - lifting weights, body resistance work, etc. - to your program. That will insure that you don't lose more lean muscle mass and will help you to burn more calories in the long run, since muscle is more metabolically active.

 

[omerc10696]

Thank you for the replies. I had based my caloric intake diet on what I got from this site using the caloric cycle option.

I forgot to add that I recently have started to add weight training to my workout routine, every other day I do about an hour or so of weight training. I had been doing 2 hours of cardio 1 hr in the morning and 1 hour in the evening, I will cut it down to 1 hr a day.

I will try to eat 2500 calories a day, I find it hard enough to eat 2000, in general I usually don't have much of an appetite. I will also set a more realistic goal, of 220 by the end of the year.

Thank you so much for your replies and your advice!