Height = 5’10
Weight = 179
Age = 30
Body Fat = 19.3 percent
About 8 months ago my wife and I split up. At the time I was 207 pounds. This prompted me to go on a bit of a health kick. I would like to say that I did it because of some “good” reason but honestly I did it so I could look good for the ladies
In reality my “health kick” was really just paying a lot closer attention to what and how much I ate. I wasn’t so much counting calories as I was just eating healthy. Junk food replaced with fruit, cut out a lot of fat and sugar, etc. Lots of whole grains, what I would consider a “healthy diet”. Well, it was pretty effective. I dropped from 207 down to 190. That was about 2 months ago. I am know in my ideal weight range and my body fat percentage is at the very top of my ideal range
I decided I wanted to take it to the next step. Since I have a good friend that is a runner I figured I would give that a go since I had a good resource available. Sucked starting out. LOVE it now. I do a short run of 2.5 miles twice a week and a long run of 4 miles twice a week. I am down to a 179 pounds and really starting to feel good about myself again. I forgot what it was like to have confidence.
Even though I am feeling good I am going to add some strength training in now. I’m looking decent but not what I would consider good. My overall goal is to be able to run with my shirt off and not feel self conscience. I would like to get my body fat down to around 12-14 percent. I would like to get some definition in my shoulders, arms, chest and stomach. My legs are coming along nicely. I have some general questions/issues as I still consider myself quite the newbie when it comes to fitness.
1. 7 days in a week. I am trying to come up with a good plan that incorporates two full rest days per week. Because of the odd days in a week I have found this to be problematic. I was thinking something along the lines of short run day I would do additional leg work, abs and back. Long run days I would to arms, shoulders and chest. The problem is I cant come up with anything that spaces it well. Any ideas?
2. Because of my limited time and space I have decided to try the resistance band route. I have found some great information on different work outs and feel that I have everything covered but my question is, will it really build muscle? I am not looking to bulk up, just have nice definition (which I also understand has a lot to do with bringing down my body fat percentage.)
3. Calorie intake – I have not done a lot of research on how many calories I should be taking in per day but I just have a strange feeling it’s not enough. I eat around 1200 calories per day. I am definitely not starving myself as I am rarely hungry and I eat at least 5 times per day. A general day for me would be a couple whole grain waffles for breakfast, a light yogurt 2 hours later, a turkey sandwich (whole grain bread, light mayo ) for lunch, a piece of fruit for a snack, a low fat dinner and then another piece of fruit/Bowl of yogurt with grape nuts or low cal ice cream for a treat for my evening snack. But from what I understand not taking in enough calories can be counter productive. What are your thoughts on this?
4. Carbs. I am kind of confused when it comes to carbs. I understand that carbs can be good or/and bad but labels in the store are confusing for me. I’ll look at a label and it will read something like [30g carbs. 3g Dietary fiber 7g Sugar 20g Other carbs] What are the “other” carbs? I know good carbs are the kind of carbs you get in whole grains (hence I only eat whole grain breads, pasta, etc) But I try to stay away from anything that has high carbs but low dietary fiber. Is this a good idea?
Thanks for any advice or information any of you would like to bestow upon me!
Weight = 179
Age = 30
Body Fat = 19.3 percent
About 8 months ago my wife and I split up. At the time I was 207 pounds. This prompted me to go on a bit of a health kick. I would like to say that I did it because of some “good” reason but honestly I did it so I could look good for the ladies
In reality my “health kick” was really just paying a lot closer attention to what and how much I ate. I wasn’t so much counting calories as I was just eating healthy. Junk food replaced with fruit, cut out a lot of fat and sugar, etc. Lots of whole grains, what I would consider a “healthy diet”. Well, it was pretty effective. I dropped from 207 down to 190. That was about 2 months ago. I am know in my ideal weight range and my body fat percentage is at the very top of my ideal range I decided I wanted to take it to the next step. Since I have a good friend that is a runner I figured I would give that a go since I had a good resource available. Sucked starting out. LOVE it now. I do a short run of 2.5 miles twice a week and a long run of 4 miles twice a week. I am down to a 179 pounds and really starting to feel good about myself again. I forgot what it was like to have confidence.
Even though I am feeling good I am going to add some strength training in now. I’m looking decent but not what I would consider good. My overall goal is to be able to run with my shirt off and not feel self conscience. I would like to get my body fat down to around 12-14 percent. I would like to get some definition in my shoulders, arms, chest and stomach. My legs are coming along nicely. I have some general questions/issues as I still consider myself quite the newbie when it comes to fitness.
1. 7 days in a week. I am trying to come up with a good plan that incorporates two full rest days per week. Because of the odd days in a week I have found this to be problematic. I was thinking something along the lines of short run day I would do additional leg work, abs and back. Long run days I would to arms, shoulders and chest. The problem is I cant come up with anything that spaces it well. Any ideas?
2. Because of my limited time and space I have decided to try the resistance band route. I have found some great information on different work outs and feel that I have everything covered but my question is, will it really build muscle? I am not looking to bulk up, just have nice definition (which I also understand has a lot to do with bringing down my body fat percentage.)
3. Calorie intake – I have not done a lot of research on how many calories I should be taking in per day but I just have a strange feeling it’s not enough. I eat around 1200 calories per day. I am definitely not starving myself as I am rarely hungry and I eat at least 5 times per day. A general day for me would be a couple whole grain waffles for breakfast, a light yogurt 2 hours later, a turkey sandwich (whole grain bread, light mayo ) for lunch, a piece of fruit for a snack, a low fat dinner and then another piece of fruit/Bowl of yogurt with grape nuts or low cal ice cream for a treat for my evening snack. But from what I understand not taking in enough calories can be counter productive. What are your thoughts on this?
4. Carbs. I am kind of confused when it comes to carbs. I understand that carbs can be good or/and bad but labels in the store are confusing for me. I’ll look at a label and it will read something like [30g carbs. 3g Dietary fiber 7g Sugar 20g Other carbs] What are the “other” carbs? I know good carbs are the kind of carbs you get in whole grains (hence I only eat whole grain breads, pasta, etc) But I try to stay away from anything that has high carbs but low dietary fiber. Is this a good idea?
Thanks for any advice or information any of you would like to bestow upon me!