Please Analyze My Plan!

[jfew]

Okay guys, I'm new here, and I really don't have money to hire a personal trainer sooo...I'll give this a shot!

About me: I'm 22 years old, a landscaper by trade (I work between 4 and 3 times a week usually, from 9 until 3 or 4, depending, with one break for lunch), and I currently weigh about 200lbs at 6'0" tall. I wear a size 34" waist (comfortably, 33 is tight but fits) and wear either a L or M shirt, depending. I am fairly pudgy, particularly around my midsection (lots of love handle, not a lot of gut, and my gut is flat as compared to a "beer belly"). I've got a fair amount of pudge around my thighs as well. I basically look like a lot of the defensive line players in pro football look. And I don't like that, personally. I want to look fit and trim. I DO have a good amount of muscle, however, most of it from my job. My thighs are huge and not just because they're pudgy.

I've already lost a TON of weight in the past two years. I WAS over 300lbs and I just..sort-of winged my way through losing weight without really doing any additional exercise outside of work, and laying around all day when I wasn't working. It worked, though! Now, though, I really want to lose all of the excess and get down to a decent weight.

Here's what I started earlier this week (Monday):

Couch-to-5k program - 3x a week. (equates to about 30 minutes, non-stop, of heavy exercise - running)
Strength training 3x a week, in between running days (been trying to keep this at 30mins as well, similar to the above)
Drinking LOTS and LOTS of water. At least a gallon a day, most of the time more.

So...about what I've been eating.

Today:
8:45 Breakfast: 3(large)-egg omelet w/ onions, roasted bell peppers, tomatoes, and salt & pepper. Used non-stick cooking spray instead of butter or oil on the pan.

2:00: Ate a large banana with a teaspoon, give or take, of peanut butter.

4:00 Did my second installment of C25K

5:00 Lunch/dinner combo. Had a footlong oven-roasted chicken breast on 9-grain honey oat bread, all the veggies, hold the cheese, salt & pepper, and honey mustard and sweet-onion sauce in place of mayonnaise (good cause I hate mayo anyway). I had along with it one of their small bags of "Baked Lays" BBQ flavor which was 130 calories and like 2g of fat, and not much else. Along with it I drank half a quart of Vitamin Water (50cal per serving, 4 servings per quart, so 100cals). Then for the next 20 minutes or so, because I was still hungry, I sat there taking swigs off a 1L water bottle until I didn't feel hungry anymore.

7:00 Ate a bite-sized butterfinger.

8:00 Had a few spoon fulls (about 1/3 cup) of leftover boiled potatoes and green beans. I then finished off the rest of that Vitamin Water so another 100cal plus whatever negligible amount those taters and green beans were.

And that's it with the exception of a couple NECO Wafers I ate...which I don't think I need to be too concerned about.

All in all, it's just over 1200 calories and that scares me. Especially since I've heard that if you eat too few calories you'll gain weight and basically shoot yourself in the foot. I didn't work today because it rained here. On a work/exercise day, I cannot imagine that 1200-1500 calories is enough for safe or effective weight loss, is it? I sure feel like I ate a ton, and I'm not hungry yet and it's midnight.

I just need a bit of guidance here. I know this is a lot to read, heh; so thank you in advance!

 

[jfew]

Well, this morning I increased my omelet by 1 egg and added a few cut up slices of turkey breast lunch meat.

I can't believe almost 100 people have looked at this and nobody's bothered to respond.

 

[Goldfish]

Hey, sorry no one's replied yet. You get that on the forums - about 1% of thread views lead to a reply. May be relative to the fact that 99% of posts are made by n00b members, and there's only a handful of regulars around to help out.

Anyway, I notice an absence of milk and dairy in your diet. You're worried about restricting calories too much, right? Have at least 3 serves of dairy each day. I find milk's especially good in pre and post workout nutrition.

As far as your exercise goes, what are you doing in your strength training?

 

[jfew]

Hey, sorry no one's replied yet. You get that on the forums - about 1% of thread views lead to a reply. May be relative to the fact that 99% of posts are made by n00b members, and there's only a handful of regulars around to help out.

Anyway, I notice an absence of milk and dairy in your diet. You're worried about restricting calories too much, right? Have at least 3 serves of dairy each day. I find milk's especially good in pre and post workout nutrition.

As far as your exercise goes, what are you doing in your strength training?

Well thank you very much for taking the time to answer!

Yeah I just happened to not have any milk that day. Though, come to think of it, I do consume very little dairy. I find going without cheese on things is a very good way to cut fat/calories in food, along with honey mustard instead of mayonnaise!

I just bought a huge jug of Body Fortress Whey Protein powder that I'll mix in with a glass of Skim Milk and have one before and after my workout, that should help a lot!

As far as strength training I'm doing curls with my tricep bar (I think that's what it's called - it's got vertical handles in the center of a rectangular tube frame). 3 sets of 6 reps with the 6th rep being damn near impossible which is what I gather is appropriate for gaining muscle. I'm also doing 3 sets of pushups, 10 at a time. I do them with my feet on the weight bench to increase resistance. In addition to the pushups I'm doing weighted situps (10lb weight behind my head) and crunches, 20 reps, 3 sets. Basically following the 3 set of reps routine. Also, I'm doing bench presses. Again, same routine.

Oh, and I've also been doing bicep curls with the leg lift portion of the bench press with my elbow on my knee and my wrist behind the pad. I wanted to make sure I was working the whole muscle. Those seem pretty effective.

Like I said, all in all, it's totaling out to about 30 minutes of intense working out...not really resting all that much and instead switching between workouts and sets to keep it switched up.

Again, thanks for responding! Let me know what you think. My main goal is to get big arms and work the hell out of my abs.

 

[Goldfish]

Is that the tricep bar you're talking about?

As far as your strength training goes, you'd be better off with more compound movements, especially some work for your back. If you don't strengthen your back properly (relative to the mirror muscles), then you're asking for stalled progress at the best, and injuries at the worst. Try this on for size:

Day A: Front Squat, Bench Press, T-Bar Row, Skullcrushers, Bridge
Day B: Romanian Deadlift, Overhead Press, Bent Over Barbell Row, Curls, Weighted Situps

The rows will balance out the presses while working the biceps, the back of the shoulers, the muscles between the shoulders, and the lats (which create the V-shaped trunk). The overhead presses will build up the front of the shoulders, the triceps and the upper traps (the muscle between your neck and your shoulders). The bridges will balance out the situps. The front squats and RDLs are leg exercises, which I gather you don't feel any need for, but they will improve your working capacity on the job, keep your hips and knees healthy (if done properly), and they'll do a lot more for your core than just the situps alone. They'll also strengthen your back and shoulders, and they'll rev up your metabolism. A lot.

As far as actually achieving your goals, you do have a bit of a conflict going on. You say one of your main goals is to get big arms, but you're also on a restrictive diet trying to lose weight. Ultimately, muscle doesn't build much, if at all, while there's a calorie deficit (which you seek to be in most of the time while targeting fat loss). Meanwhile, body fat seldom reduces in a calorie surplus (which you seek while targeting muscle gains). So it's probably best to use the strength training to maintain muscle mass while you shed fat. Try to get stronger and try to build more muscle while the fat's coming off, but don't feel let down if you get rid of all the fat and there's no more muscle there than there is now. And then once you've gotten rid of the fat, slowly increase your calorie consumption each day to allow your muscles to grow.

 

[jfew]

Is that the tricep bar you're talking about?

As far as your strength training goes, you'd be better off with more compound movements, especially some work for your back. If you don't strengthen your back properly (relative to the mirror muscles), then you're asking for stalled progress at the best, and injuries at the worst. Try this on for size:

Day A: Front Squat, Bench Press, T-Bar Row, Skullcrushers, Bridge
Day B: Romanian Deadlift, Overhead Press, Bent Over Barbell Row, Curls, Weighted Situps

The rows will balance out the presses while working the biceps, the back of the shoulers, the muscles between the shoulders, and the lats (which create the V-shaped trunk). The overhead presses will build up the front of the shoulders, the triceps and the upper traps (the muscle between your neck and your shoulders). The bridges will balance out the situps. The front squats and RDLs are leg exercises, which I gather you don't feel any need for, but they will improve your working capacity on the job, keep your hips and knees healthy (if done properly), and they'll do a lot more for your core than just the situps alone. They'll also strengthen your back and shoulders, and they'll rev up your metabolism. A lot.

As far as actually achieving your goals, you do have a bit of a conflict going on. You say one of your main goals is to get big arms, but you're also on a restrictive diet trying to lose weight. Ultimately, muscle doesn't build much, if at all, while there's a calorie deficit (which you seek to be in most of the time while targeting fat loss). Meanwhile, body fat seldom reduces in a calorie surplus (which you seek while targeting muscle gains). So it's probably best to use the strength training to maintain muscle mass while you shed fat. Try to get stronger and try to build more muscle while the fat's coming off, but don't feel let down if you get rid of all the fat and there's no more muscle there than there is now. And then once you've gotten rid of the fat, slowly increase your calorie consumption each day to allow your muscles to grow.

Yep that's what it is alright. I prefer that over traditional straight-bar curls.

Yeah I guess you're probably right, I should focus more on making the muscles I have more defined and not bulk them while I'm trying to lose weight at the same time. I have been taking in a ton (125g which I assume is a lot) of lean protein like fish and chicken about every other day while still maintaining my calorie goal (1600 which was recommended by this app that I've been using).

So I need to be going for reps instead of weight?

Again, thanks for the information!