Lowering Body fat

P

phelaphant

0
Hi all.

Im 23 and 6 feet 2. After approximately 7 years of smoking, drinking and no real exercise to speak of, I decided something needed to change! This was 4 weeks ago, I stopped smoking then. 2 weeks later I started a low fat diet and joined up with the gym!

I go to the gym about 4-5 times a week. It usually consists of 20-30 mins on treadmill(2.5-4 km), 10 mins on cross country machine and about 15-20 mins on exercise bike (6-8 km).

To cut a long winded tread short, is what I am doing the right way to tone up my body? Because I'm trying to lose weight im not doing any weights(As far as I know muscle is heavier than fat?) Ive lost 11 pounds so far.

Ive read on here you cant spot reduce certain parts of your body. My main area's of concern is my thighs and stomach. I have noticed a little bit of fat loss so far, if I continue with this program will I gradually see a reduction in overall body fat and in particular my thighs and stomach?

Can you guys recommend anything else? My overall plan is to lose weight and tone up. Once im satisfied with that ill start using weights to build up more muscle. Is that a good way of doing things?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Many thanks
Shane
 
Low fat diets are not what you want. I would suggest at least 30% of your caloric intake to be fats, just healthy ones like EFA's.
You cannot target body fat in a specific region. Everyone carries their fat differently, and you cannot chose where your body will oxidize it from first.
  • 40/30/30 (Protein/carbs/fat)
  • no less than 6 meals each day.(by constantly providing a steady flow of nutrients during waking hours, you are less likely to STORE energy.)
  • Lower carbohydrates at night (unused carbs are stored as fat)
  • Raise your fats at night, keep them lower at the beginning of the day. (consuming more of your fat intake at night can actually slow down the digestion of protein which is a great edge when you are cutting. Muscle loss is something to avoid)
  • Don't starve yourself. It is not uncommon to be hungry when you are eating a low calorie diet, but dont go too crazy with it.
  • track your body fat so that you know if you are losing muscle or fat. Lots of people start losing weight and they think they are doing great, when infact their regimen is simply eating up their muscle mass.
    Check out these blogs if you get the time:

  • I would go for somewhere between 12-15 X LBM (lean body mass, desicribed in the measuring your bodyfat blog link)
I see that you enjoy doing lost of different exercise machines. Keep in mind that all you need to do is hit your target heart rate and maintain it. You could do that with a jump rope if you liked. The point is.. If you are using all those machines because you think they will target fat in different areas, you are mistaken. If you just like switching it up. Awesome, keep at it, but get from machine to machine quick.. You want to Maintain that elevated heartrate and boost the hell out of your metabolism.

Many people argue this, but I am in support of fasted cardio (cardio on an empty stomach), If you eat a big meal and then hit the gym, you are just burning calories, not body fat. Others say that you increase your metabolism for 24 hours and that is all that matters, but I am very skeptical and have not heard any good arguments to support this.
Your body first burns carbohydrates (glycogen inc..), then it goes after fat storage (a little bit of muscle breakdown which cannot be avoided with this method) BUT, When you elevate your heart rate you increase your fat burning capability and when your body has no carbohydrates to burn it can go after your fat storage. This isn't a scientific reason, but I am a member of a program by a guy named Anthony Ellis, and on his cutting phase he recommends fasted cardio. on his private forums I have witness HUNDREDS of people making great fat loss with fasted cardio.

Anyhow, the diet info is in check.. the cardio is up to you. Good luck reaching your goals! :)
 
Yep, low fat diets are not good in my opinion. Your body needs fat.

In addition to what niceone posted, I would say to start weight training! I mean, do you want to lose weight (muscle, water, fat) or do you want to lose fat? If it's fat you want to lose then pick up those weights. I think cardio is over-rated for fat loss and i've heard many a good report of people seeing much faster fat loss once they started weight training. I'm not saying ditch the cardio - it works the heart which is a muscle itself, and that's important.

I don't agree with the fasted cardio theory. In my opinion cardio is for burning calories, not fat.

11lbs in 2 weeks is a lot and that's going to be mostly water weight you have lost so that's why you've not seen a huge difference in the amount of fat on your body. It's going to take time. You'll be losing about 1-2lbs of fat per week.

Again, what niceone said - don't starve yourself and eat regularly.
 
Shane,

you're doing yourself a huge disservice by skipping the weights. do you wanna be a scrawny looking dude, or a fit looking dude?

11lbs in 2 weeks...I bet a little fat, a lot of water, and possible a couple pounds of lean muscle mass lost because of your crappy diet. That's bad, because muscle BURNS calories...so the less muscle you have, the easier it is to get fat.
 
Muscle is indeed heavier, but it also takes less space. What does this mean? That you'll LOOK better even if the scale reflects your few pounds of muscle.

Isn't that what matters? if you need to see a number to reflect your results, start testing body fat.
 
Many many thanks guys for all your replies! Much appreciated!

From your replies I can see that introducing a weights program into my gym time will be beneficial! I reckon ill do one session cardio, one session weights (Monday cardio, tuesday weights etc.) Is that the right way?

I think I pretty much do the fasten cardio already! But for a weights session is it advisable to eat first? Not a whole meal, maybe a couple of bananas?! What do you guys think?

Im a little bit confused about the points about not dieting! I really do have a sweet tooth(cakes chocolate etc!) But I find im very controlled when Im on a diet hence the reason for it! If a low fat diet is not the way what is?

Can you also point in the direction of a decent scales for measuring body fat!

Once again thanks for your time and help!

Shane
 
Shane,

for body fat testing, a pair of $15 skin fold calipers and an instruction manual (or online sources) is all you need. those bodyfat scales you stand on or grab hold of aren't accurate and are easily skewed if you're dehydrated or over hydrated.

When we say 'don't diet' what we mean is "fad diets aren't a permanent solution". yOU need to change how you eat, for life. whole foods that aren't all processed.

sweets are for birthdays, celebrations, or a quick reward. they shouldn't be consumed daily, or even weekly.

The body NEEDS fat. in fact, you NEED saturated fat...and if you get too little, your body won't produce as much testosterone...and that's bad for muscle growth AND fat loss (women naturally have a higher normal bodyfat due to lower testosterone and higher estrogen causing fat storage around the hips buns and stomach...to protect an unborn child). you also need fat to keep the skin soft, the hair from drying out, and to lubricate joints...among other things.

too many refined carbs, and crappy calorie dense foods are why most people gain weight (plus the lack of exercise). You can eat a ton of food, by volume, when its veggies and fruits. Hell I've followed one nutrition program where almost every vegetable was a free food...no limit...doesn't even count towards daily calories. a cup of broccoli has like 22calories...a cup of brown rice has 216cals.

changing how you eat is the biggest step towards permanent change, followed closely by physical activity.
 
the body needs FAT and the body needs CARBS, but if you eat everything, you won't lose weight!

i stick to mainly greens and fruit. and that's how i lost the 30 lbs!
 
LiveFromNY said:
the body needs FAT and the body needs CARBS, but if you eat everything, you won't lose weight!

i stick to mainly greens and fruit. and that's how i lost the 30 lbs!
Click to expand...

quite misleading statement -0-

watching your caloric intake is the main point to losing body fat. creating a deficit and also building muscle as each lb of muscle burns 50 calories.
 
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