Need Help.....please

Hi, I am 18 years old and slightly overweight. I am about 5'10 and 180 ponds. If people judge me by my body weight, they usually say that I am Medium(Not too fat nor slim), some say I am fat. I am also athletic, I play sports ocassionally and also exercise. My problem is that I have a lot of flab or extra fat(especially around the chest). I think this fat/flab is limiting my ability to perform at a maximum level in sports or exercise. What is the best way to lose this fat and then tone my body up? For example to remove chest fat, if weight training, please specify what type of weights or exercises. If cardio, please specify the type of exercise and the how much. My main goal is to shed off that fat and then tone it up later. If somebody could answer these questions I would really appreciate it because I think that I am very inconsistent. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks in advance.
 
You cannot spot reduce fat like you suggest. When you cut it reduces all over your body. Do some research. Read this site and others and be a bit more motivated. It will pay off when you start your training.


Since you mentioned nothing about your diet, I am going to go ahead and say that is your biggest problem. Diet is 80% of cutting if not 90%. Diet does NOT mean eat less.

Bench presses and the like are not very good exercises if you ask me, especially if you are cutting. When cutting it's better to go for as much muscle recruitment as possible per exercise. Work out in a circuit where you can keep your heart rate up by limiting rest intervals.
 
Thanks Ahathaway and Johnny....Yes, I think my main problem is that I am not motivated because I am not seeing results fast. I need to be more consistent with my diet and exercise. I have a hard time following 1 thing.

Johnny....I feel you are right man but my problem is not just the diet. Trust me man I did research, and from that I figured out that if I want to cut or melt the fat, I need to use smaller weights and perform a lot of reps with at leaste 4 sets for each exercise<----------Is this right??. I am not doing very much exercise right now as I have to go to school. But when I do exercise, I usually do Cardio first, for about 15 min, then I go to muscular endurance. I start with Chest Press around 150 pounds or so(I can't remember), then I also do the butterfly or pec dec for 2-3 sets. After that, I work out my lat and shoulders a bit and then I am done. I get a good 45 min out of this. By circuit you mean like switch back forth between different exercises? This is mainly cardio right? Will this help me cut down more or will smaller weights and more reps help more? Please tell me what I should do and how often?

Thanks for the help...I really appreciate it!
 
I personally would not use the method you mentioned. It's been said that if you are lifting heavy weights and doing more than 5 reps per exercise....you are bodybuilding. The routine you described is DEFINATELY for bodybuilding. This will show you minimal results for a short time the way you do it, but this is not how to cut.
Circuit: when you work a circuit you are doing a predetermined order of exercises one right after the next with 30s-1min rest in-between. This short time will let your heart rate come back down, while at the same time keeping it up in your fat burning zone.
Our circumstances are similar as I am on a cutting phase again after a fractured leg. I do calisthenics DAILY consisting of 25 push-ups and 10 pull ups per hour. Then when I get home I do a weight circuit. Kettlebell swings, snatches, cleans, shoulder press, abs. One odd days I switch heavy dead lifts and side presses for the circuit. I do aerobic exercise daily or every other day depending on schedule. When I go every day, I split running, swimming, and biking.
This coupled with diet can rip you up in 2mo or less depending on where you start. You can definitely see results inside 3 weeks.
For you, you could do 100% calisthenics in a circuit and it would probably be 300% more effective than what you have been doing.
 
Thanks a lot.....!!

hey thanks a lot, for the help guys....I am definately taking the advice. I am currently busy with work but I will start serious exercise tomorrow. I also want to control my diet so I have to go and do some shopping. I will probably buy drinks like V8, Orange Juice, Apple Juice etc. Should I buy diet soda? What do you guys think of diet soda and how it will affect my body??

One of my main problems is that I get really tired easily like yesterday I went to the gym for only half an hour and came home really tired. For example, I can't run for too long, I start to breath heavily and eventually give up. I used to be able to run for like 20-30 min a couple of years ago but now it's really tough. I think the only way is to keep running and eventually I will build my endurance as I practice. Cardio is probably the toughest for me but I think it is the best way to cut.

Thanks again guys......I will keep informing you of the results!!
 
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Watch out for the sugar content when you shop. Those drinks you mentioned are full of sugars and simple carbs.

For your cardio, use the machines with the heart rate function if you don't have one yourself. This will help you to stay in the correct zone. Once you sart going too hard, your body switches from burning fat as fuel to burning the sugars in your muscles. Once you get into your anaerobic zone it is much harder to go back to an aerobic function than it is to raise it to that anaerobic state. Meaning start out slow and progress slowly throughout the workout. The sugars in your muscles are in short supply, and your body cannot replace them during workout. If you deplete these stores you will crash, and feel like you have no energy left. Most demotivating.

Once you get your diet in place you should have a much easier time working out because you will have more energy. You can also eat some carbs 30m-1hr before your workout with some gatoraid. This will help boost you up a bit. Out team used to eat half a cliff bar and drink a bunch of gatoraid before we went out and it worked just fine. Also think about taking an energy pill before training if it fits in your schedule.
Remember to hydrate after training. Best to drink watered down gatoraid or poweraid. Watering them down dilutes the amount of slat and sugars in their full strength form. These drinks are designed to keep you going during long workouts, not for post workout hydration. To hydrate use the abouve method.

Happy training. Keep us informed
 
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