Noticeably overweight any advice on weight loss and muscle development would be great

G

Gearz

0
For starters I am 5' 9" to 5' 8" depending on the day I'm measured. (Gone as high as 5' 10", not sure if flattery or **** measuring)
I am obese and need to lose weight. I am on a break form school and my work's training doesn't kick in till the next two weeks.
In short, I have a lot of free time, but no work out partner, and no clue what I'm doing..
I have never worked out in my life. Closest is playing catch in a parking lot with a football.
I have to lose weight first, which is the big thing. My doctor isn't concerned, he told me to just work my muscles to my upper body. He said it's all concentrated in my abdomen and the muscle is DENSE. The thing that confuses me is I'm 240lbs. That's not good for my height.
It's ****ing my back and I need to lose weight. I read boards and "how to's" and I get conflicting reports.
So I signed up here to ask you guys, because you seem to know what you're talking about, and not being Bro-****s.

To the users who have had high weight, what was the most effective (read: fastest, least detrimental to your overall health) way to lose weight in whatever form. Whether that be Diet, exercise, voodoo, or some combination of the aforementioned, I don't care.
I want to lose weight fast, and safe.
Then build muscle. I apparently have muscle that's just not formed in my abdomen.
I'd like to tap into that and not hear the bro lectures from my friend.

Any help is appreciated.
Thank you guys.
 
You're confused by what your doctor says? Well that makes two of us.

Fat loss is fairly simple, but alas you're right: there's a lot of conflicting advice out there.

The single most important thing for losing weight is to be in a negative energy balance, meaning that the energy you consume is less than the energy you use on a daily basis. You can achieve that by decreasing calorie consumption (calories are just a unit of measurement for energy), increasing calorie expenditure (by doing more stuff), or a combination of the two.

You're asking about fast weight loss. My honest recommendation is not to aim for fast results. The faster the weight comes off, the sooner you'll hit a wall. The sooner you hit a wall, the sooner you'll have to adjust things to continue progressing. The more often you have to adjust things to continue losing fat, the more damage your metabolism is taking. The more damage your metabolism takes, the harder it will be to continue, and the more likely you are to gain the fat back if you lapse or relapse into the behaviour that got you fat in the first place.

Old tortoise and the hare story is true when it comes to fat loss, so the rapid fat loss people often get ahead for the first few weeks, but then they have to keep up the effort that got their rapid results just to maintain -- I don't know about you, but sticking to a very low calorie diet just to stop myself from regaining weight doesn't sound like fun. On the other hand, the slow and steady team tend to get better results over the long haul, and will have a more enjoyable time doing it.

So instead of trying to lose weight as fast as possible, I'd only be aiming to lose about 1lb/wk, which can be achieved fairly easily by reducing about 2-300kcal from your daily diet (that's not much: most people could achieve that just by replacing some soft drink with water or replacing some other high energy food with a lower energy alternative -- going hungry is seldom needed) and doing an hour in the gym 3 days a week or 30min 5 days a week.

The time spent exercising can be pretty much any exercise, too. For optimal fat loss, I recommend strength training, with the possible addition of high intensity cardio (which typically takes the form of HIIT or circuit training). If you would enjoy lower intensity activities, you can do that, too -- in fact it's ultimately better that you do something you enjoy even if it's less efficient, because the more you enjoy an activity, the more likely you are to adhere to: a program is only as good as your adherence to it.

But strength training is the creme of the crop, not because of the amount of energy it burns (which is still a high amount, and you can actually burn more energy per unit of time doing heavy compound lifts than jogging), but because it tells your body that your muscle mass is needed, so when you're in a negative energy balance, your body won't turn to muscle mass to break down for energy. Instead, it will turn to body fat stores, so you'll know that more of the weight lost is the stuff you're trying to get rid of. HIIT and circuit training put similar stresses on the body to strength training, and use a lot of the same muscle fibre types and energy systems, which drives similar results. A combination of strength and HIIT is probably the best way to train for fat loss.

Proper strength training uses a lot more than just your upper body. The programs I design are usually built around squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, pull ups/downs and rows. 6 basic movements that work most muscles of the body, and when done correctly do better things for your core than crunches.

I hope that clears things up and gives you some direction. If you need further clarification, let us know.
 
I am going to add to Goldie's post because everything he says is spot on, but I think there were some bits I would have added.
First and foremost, you are almost totally unused to activity, start steady at insultingly low intensity and build up as you become familiar with movements. This is not quick fix territory because quick fix plans are only interested in repeat business not you. The alternative to following this advise is making yourself ache so much you will not be able to train for days or full on injuries that will inhibit your ability for weeks, months or more.

Some math and facts behind one of the most common quick fixes and why they are not worth the paper they are written on or the money spent on them.

Basics overall
Calories per pound of fat 3,500
Rough average daily calorie requirement for person in partially active state 1,750
Carbohydrates 4 calories per gram excess stored using glycogen or converted to fat
Protein 4 calories per gram excess converted to fat where possible or urea
Fat 9 calories per gram
Protein absorption and carbs stored by glycogen is optimised by genetic switches during and just after physical activity. Yes this means exercise literally changes your genetic capacities for short periods. It also means that you can only absorb 17 grams of protein in one go most of the time or 25 during or just after activity, the rest passes straight through.
Sugar is a type of carbohydrate, starch is another.

Low carb, high protein diet.
Because carbs are converted to fat instantly and protein is ultimately the most wonderful food in the world, able to make you gain or lose weight with no problem at all.
Unless you consider that the human animal is designed to get most of it's energy from complex carbohydrates, not protein. The clues are obvious when you look inside the mouth at our less than massive canine teeth and the fact we generate a volume of amylase only animals used to large volumes of starch match.
There are other factors too, like the way the body uses carb intake as a guide for metabolism. Drastic drops in carb intake make the body think it has hit lean times and less likely to release fat stores until totally essential.
But these diets work brilliantly to make you lose weight in the short time so what is going on?
We will assume the calorific intake is the same as normal, all that has shifted is the proportion.
Protein being eaten in volumes that are far to high for the bodies need to repair, replace enzymes etc. Over half will need to be converted to fat or disposed of. Not possible to say which the proportion will be so will assume 30% is disposed of leaving only 20% going to fat stores. 30% or the protein absorbed is being disposed of after being converted into urea is removed in urine, taking with it a massive volume of water. These diets will tell you to drink plenty of water but the balance will always be more out than coming in due to the protein volume. This is virtually all of your weight loss.
The body will have to redress the water loss and within a week or so the weight you lost will be found again.
Metabolism down means your body will be lethargic and be begging you to eat carbs in order to survive. You will have to give into this at some point and this guarantees repeat business, because this usually occurs at around a week of so in and you will assume the binge is the reason the weight has returned and be straight back on it.
Reality is you will have burned minimal fat, likely laid down more of it in lipoproteins (protein converted to fat) than you burned so be fatter than before.
Math
In these diets the loss is dramatic often as much as 7 to 10 pounds in a week. For this we will assume 7.
7 pounds in a week = 1 pound a day.
1 pound of fat = 3,500 calories or twice average calorie requirement.
To have burned this as pure fat you have needed to burn 3 times as much energy as you have consumed based on normal food volumes. This didn't happen. These diets don't work long term and taken to extremes as in the Aitkens diet they do kill people.

There are many people who become despondent at losses of only 1 or 2 pounds a week, because they don't realise how incredible this is.
1 pound a week fat loss = 500 calories a day deficit
2 pounds a week fat loss = 1,000 calories a day deficit, over half the amount of calories you need a day and the maximum you will be able to maintain safely.

Don't cut out, cut down and keep cutting down gradually. The lighter you get the less energy you burn in everyday activity so the less food you need.

Varied exercise is good for weight loss, low intensity cardio right through to high intensity resistance training. If you really hate stuff, don't do it, there will be exercise you enjoy and when you find it keep going. If you find boxercise and ballet are your thing do them, if it's walking and weights go for it.
 
Holy hell. Thank you two so much. This was preliminary info grabbing because I'm not starting any routines till I start my job and can afford a gym membership.
I will read and re read this info. Thank you so much. Really, this is awesome.
 
The forum veterans above gave you a good detailed over view.
The truth is it's not really that hard for most people to lose weight and tone up once they get serious, stop expecting miracle products or pills to do it for them, and get the basics down on nutrition, exercise and cardio.
And ironically once most people who claim "nothing worked before" finally get the facts straight and follow a logical and scientifically sound plan of eating and exercise, they remark it was easier than they thought and many of their prior beliefs on weight loss or exercise were distorted or wrong.

Michael Spitzer - Author - FITNESS at 40, 50, 60 and Beyond
 
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