Need help losing about 40-50 pounds.

[Isaiah K]

Hello everyone reading,

I've been looking around for websites where I can talk to real people in regards to losing the type of weight I need.

Body background: Right now I am 20 years old, between 6'2 and 6'3 and I weight about 240 pounds. I've looked around and someone around my height is apparently supposed to be around the 190 area. In high school, I had the worst diet possible which brought on this type of weight years later. When I was in high school, I was working full time as I never told my job I was still in high school and they didn't bother to ask, so I was basically on a routine of school > work > get home > homework and then either get a few hours of sleep or try and fit in time to talk with friends and manage a relationship, while getting less than an hour of sleep. Due to that, I was pretty much on pure caffeine, sugar, processed foods, fast foods, and junk food in general. At the time I didn't care too much, but now I actually do care and need help in losing my weight.

Diet: Recently I have cut out all fast foods, I haven't touched a single soda, energy drink, coffee or sugar loaded drink in almost 2 years. There are times I will get a craving for pizza, which sometimes I succumb to, but I do my best to eat no more than 3 slices. I've started eating a lot more meats such as eggs, chicken and fish, while trying to eat vegetables and fruits as snacks. The problem I have, is I am unfortunately a pick eater. There are not a lot of vegetables or fruits that I really like; which I am basing off of when I ate them as a kid. Right now the only vegetables I can eat are peas, corn, lettuce, spinach (in small quantities,) celery, potatoes, and I've had parsley a few times that I enjoyed the taste of. For fruits I can eat, apples, grapes, blueberries, raisins and only drink bananas or lemons if they are juiced. Everything else, I never liked as a kid; however I do plan to try out a bite of every fruit and vegetable I can buy at a store, but for now, this is all I can eat. Meats, I'm fine with pretty much any meat.

Recent Daily Diet: Every morning I start off with 2-3 eggs. 2 slices of white sourdough bread (I need to find a grain/wheat bread that I can actually stomach) and I will either throw in 2 slices of cheese and make a breakfast sandwich. I cook with olive oil as I don't like the taste of butter really, plus I believe olive oil is healthier than butter? Lunch is normally chicken and peas, but sometimes I will have pork and peas or if I am out of peas, I will substitute about 1 and a half serving of pasta, which again, isn't grain or wheat. Dinner is normally fish or chicken, with spinach or just the meat on it's own. Snacks I have been trying to limit to fruits, however there are many times I skip over snacks in general and just wait it out.

Exercise: Exercise is really something I need to do, however I don't have as much time as I would like. Every night I walk my dog for about 20-30 minutes and I only really have time for the gym on the weekdays, which I do cardio for about 45 minutes and upper body training for about 20 minutes.

Problems with a diet: As I mentioned above, I am a picky eater, while I want to try and get used to other foods to live a healthier lifestyle, I don't want to force myself to eat foods I don't like or in my mind I'll start to resent even trying to eat those foods. If I start off slow to see how I like certain foods over time, then I would have an easier time with a diet, but I still don't know where to start or even keep up with trying to get used to a food I may not like.

Goals: Really just lose the weight and become lean, from there build more muscle. I went to the doctor a few weeks back and she did a BMI test on me, which I didn't pay attention to anything really except for something that caught my ear. She did say I was about 74% muscle, but I had what she called "the biker build" which she explained as muscle is underneath the fat, but the fat shows more and/or is more dominant appearance wise; which I'm assuming is off the idea that bikers eat bar food and drink a lot of alcohol which makes them look fatter. Given my old diet, I could see how this would happen. Most of my fat is in my stomach, back and chest (I believe I have man boobs sometimes because of it.) My legs, arms and even thighs are pretty toned, with very little fat on them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Trusylver]

Looks like you have made some good changes, there are several men on the forum who have been where you are now, most stick to the diary section, so I would suggest starting a thread in that section (or I can move this one)

Your exercise looks mostly good, however working only upper body in addition to your cardio is a poor option, you also need to strengthen legs, not only will training legs burn more calories, heavy leg exercises boost testosterone production. You also do not say how many week days you are training at the gym but if you train upper body on consecutive days then you not only risk over training causing injury, but will also hold back your progress.

 

[allcdnboy1]

Diet is the hardest thing to stick to, but you are right. If you aren't eating the food you like, you won't be able to stick to it. It's taken me years to get to where I am.

Smoothies can be your downfall, as that is a lot of sugar.

The easiest way for me to get vegetables is through salads. I rotate between spinach (nuts, avacado, peppers & feta), Cobb salad, taco and mixed green salads (throwing whatever I have laying around).

 

[Isaiah K]

Looks like you have made some good changes, there are several men on the forum who have been where you are now, most stick to the diary section, so I would suggest starting a thread in that section (or I can move this one)

Your exercise looks mostly good, however working only upper body in addition to your cardio is a poor option, you also need to strengthen legs, not only will training legs burn more calories, heavy leg exercises boost testosterone production. You also do not say how many week days you are training at the gym but if you train upper body on consecutive days then you not only risk over training causing injury, but will also hold back your progress.

Weekdays was a typo actually, I meant weekends, so only Saturday and Sunday. If I have a day off work due to a holiday, then I'll try and hit the gym there, but that only happens so often. I'll fix the type I made above. Also you can move it if you think that will help get me some more insight to work a plan out. For the gym, should I do one day cardio and lower body training, say on Saturday and then Sunday do upper body training?

Diet is the hardest thing to stick to, but you are right. If you aren't eating the food you like, you won't be able to stick to it. It's taken me years to get to where I am.

Smoothies can be your downfall, as that is a lot of sugar.

The easiest way for me to get vegetables is through salads. I rotate between spinach (nuts, avacado, peppers & feta), Cobb salad, taco and mixed green salads (throwing whatever I have laying around).

I've never been too big a fan of "health smoothies" or anything like that, as I remember when I was about 13 or 14, I tried one at a Jamba Juice and I could tell how much sweeteners and sugar was in there. The only time I really have a smoothie, is if I make it, which is normally the banana with blueberry or just the banana with crushed ice and drink it from there. I could probably throw in a few vegetables in a salad like carrots and possibly a little cauliflower without overwhelming the taste too much, since lettuce I do like the taste of. I want to try and avoid dressing as much as possible, as I can't stand ranch or thousand island, I only really liked that Paul Newman's olive/vinegar dressing, but I haven't had that in years so I don't remember what else is in it besides just the title of it.