Newbie-Hey Everyone!

Juneau89

New member
Hey everyone, my name is Jay and I'm a current college student in Illinois. I'm 22 years old, around 6 foot, and weigh 340lbs. I'm on a mission to loose around 60lbs which would bring me to 280lbs. I would feel very comfortable at this weight so this is what I'm setting my goal at.

I started my workout plans/diet around 3 weeks ago and have already lost around 15lbs. I currently go to the gym 4 days a week and run on the elliptical trainer for about 20-25 minutes. I feel that I enjoy more of an intensity type of workout so I give it my all in that 20 minutes. What I usually do is sprint a .25 mile at about 9-9.5mph and then bring it down to about 7mph. I am determined to not let my speed fall under 6.5mph the entire workout. At the end of the 20 minutes I find myself at 2-2.25 miles overall.

I am currently taking some supplements/medications that were prescribed to me by my doctor. He gave me some sort of medication that diabetics use in order to control sugar throughout the body(not sure of the name off-hand). I am also taking 30mg of Adderal daily. I know that Adderal has some very bad side effects but I am willing to take the risk. I feel that it helps me stay motivated and also helps control my hunger.

My diet is not really a diet at all, more like starvation in some sense I feel like. I eat a granola bar in the morning with my medication, fruits such as apples, bananas, and peaches throughout the day, and a grilled chicken breast or some tuna for dinner. I drink about 8 water bottles a day and haven't drunken a soda in about a year.

I'm here to meet some new people that may be in the same situation that I am. I don't talk about my diet too much except to my family and close friends. I could use and would appreciate any advice or tips from anyone.

Well that's pretty much all about me!
 
I would strongly suggest reading the "stickied" threads, there's lots of good info in them. I would also suggest figuring out about how many calories you are eating in a normal day. Because my guess would be that they are way too low. But anywho....welcome to the forum!! :)
 
I really really REALLY don't suggest 'taking the risk' and using Adderal for weight loss. Being blunt..that is being stupid as hell. You don't need to put your life at risk to lose weight. It is knowledge, it is support and it is focus. We can help with the first two but we can't really help if you are taking that stuff to try and lose weight.
 
I've seen many posts about counting the amount of calories that I am consuming per day but I haven't gotten to that yet. I am pretty much positive that I am eating less than 1,000 calories per day but I'm not quite sure if that is healthy or not.

Going from what I've read from different sources, since I'm not eating much, I am using my fat stores as energy when I work out which is a good thing right?

My doctor has prescribed me the medication so I'm guessing that it couldn't be that bad. I'm not just buying it from people and taking it on my own preference.
 
he gave you medication like that but I bet it wasn't for weight loss was it? It was for ADHD correct?

As far as your calories a day, let's do this. For one week, record what you eat and be honest as hell about it. We all thought we wasn't eating that many calories and we was wrong. Underestimating calories is common.
 
No, it was for weight loss, I don't have ADD or ADHD. I'm not sure when I should exactly start counting my calorie intake. I'm going to Vegas this Friday, and I already know that it is going to be hard for me to stay with my diet/exercise. I was thinking that if I started next Monday, I will have an entire week of accurate date. I hate saying next, next, next but I know that I'm going to fall of the plan a few days while I'm out there.
 
well then, I am completely shocked that a doctor would give you that..I really am. It isn't meant for that. you really don't need it to lose weight.
 
First off, you do not need drugs to help you lose weight unless your doctor has diagnosed you with a genuine medical condition which causes some kind of change in your metabolism.

You need to be careful with essentially starving yourself, you shouldn't be eating only a tiny amount of food, what happens is that your body activates a starvation response and lowers your metabolism rate so that you need less energy per day, this actually makes your calorie deficit less and you'll find it harder to lose weight. Not only that but when you increase your intake again in the future your body will keep that low metabolism for a while which means you'll gain weight coming out of the starvation period.

Weightloss works best when done at steady pace which isn't too fast, if you try and force it really quickly then your body will naturally resist that and you'll be struggling harder to lose every pound.

learn to calorie count, find your maintenance weight using a calorie calculator and set a routine for yourself where you consume less calories than you need, aim for something like a 2lb loss per week that's a 1000 calorie deficit.
 
Yeah I heard that if you go into starvation mode your metabolism slows down to preserve your body. But I also heard that it causes your body to use fat for energy instead of the food(carbs mostly).

I'm going to start my calorie counting next week when I get back from vacation so I cam have some accurate readings. I don't feel like 2lbs a week is enough, I know it something but to me it just doesn't sound right. I try to push for at the minimum 5lbs/week which I have done in the past 3 weeks.

As for my exercise routine, what do you guys think? Should I be spending more time doing cardio, what about weight lifting? I heard musle replaces fat so would it be ok if I switched between cardio and lifting?
 
Back
Top