Wes's Diary

A

Apple Geek

0
Alright guys, so I'm 14, male, 5'10, around 200 pounds.
My goal is to lost the fat and maybe get a six pack by summer (2007).
I'm not setting a set weight. I just want to be comfortable taking my shirt of, wearing tight cloths and just feeling good about what I eat.

I started this yesterday.
Yesterday and today, I ran/walked for 8 minutes at 10.0 Incline. Then I ran/walked for 10 minutes at 5.0 incline. Then I did 12 minutes at 1.5 incline and pretty much ran the whole thing. Within an hour after that I took a protein shake and 4ML of Noni Juice (for anyone who knows that is).
I ran 2.10 today (i don't know if the treadmill is Miles or Kilometers) but it's still pretty good. However I feel like it's not much, because the rest of the day, I slept/sat at the computer/cooked. So there was not much activity. Once school starts there will be more activity with walking from the metro to school, going up and down the stares and stuff like that.

Here is what I ate today.

1 Ham sandwich with white bread. - ~ 1:00PM
1 Ham sandwich with white bread. - ~ 3:00PM
1 1/2 Chicken breast with Wild rice and a salad. - ~ 7:00PM
3 Granola bars (in between and after those meals)
To drink I had water. In total I drank about 2-2.5L of water today.

I'm kind of feel like I did bad with the eating today. Because I kinda ate at random times and because I wake up late, I feel like it ruins my eating. Hopefully that will change once school starts in a week, and I will try and have a breakfast, then a snack at school I'll take a bagged lunch with like a juice, then when I get home i'll have a snack and then hopefully make a healthy dinner. And I will do my BEST to not eat past like 7:00PM.

Any tips on what/when I should eat? How much? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to eating. I skip a lot of meals and just eat whenever.

Also, what should my excersize shedual be like? Should I run 30 mins everyday? Or should I run one day, lift another, then do crunches with something else, then rest another day? How should my work out shedual be?

It would be great if someone could tell me like a detailed list of what to do, so that I can reach my goal by the summer.

So, i'll keep this updated.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
Last edited:
Good luck on your journey! Since we're all different, there's no way of giving a very detailed list on what you should do, but here's some pointers.

Try to eat more regularly. If you skip meals, it causes two things: you get really hungry, which makes it too easy to overdo your next meal. And also I think it slows down your metabolism, which in turn makes losing weight more difficult. I think most recommend eating 5-6 meals a day, most of them small ones.

Regarding exercising, you could try different things and see what feels best. Don't overdo it on one day. What I would recommend is don't run and lift weights on the same day. Crunches, sit-ups and whatnot you can do whenever you feel like it. If your muscles are sore from the previous exercise, do something else. Muscle soreness comes from tiny little tears in the muscle tissue, and it's like a warning from the body: give me time to recover, or the tears will only get worse! Lifting weights can be a surprisingly good cardio exercise, if you do it right. Considering your age, I would definitely use low weights/resistance and do long sets, 10-20 repetitions each depending on the move, maybe 3-4 sets for each move. Again, don't overdo it. It's too easy to break something in your body when using too much weights and/or not having the correct technique. And this is from someone who has broken himself in a number of places while training with weights...
 
Alright. So, should I do cardio untill I lose some fat? Because I know mucle builds under the fat, so if I'm lifting, won't I appear bigger? Or is it okay to like, Run on monday, lift on tuesday, run on wendsday and thursday,rest on friday lift on saturday run on sunday. Or something like that? and then do crunches everyother day?

As for the eating, I'm going to try my BEST to eat small regualr meals. I'm not sure what "Small" means, can you give me an example of what a "small" meal is or a photo of one?

Thanks again.
 
I think the exercise schedule you posted looks just right. Both cardio and strength training are important. Cardio to burn calories and condition your heart and lungs, and weights not as much to gain muscles, but to avoid losing them during weight loss. When you're eating less than you consume, the body will take the extra energy from wherever it can get it, including muscles.

Regarding the meals, there are plenty of good examples here in the forum - just browse around the threads! My typical day looks something like this:

Breakfast: Two slices of wholegrain bread with low-fat cheese or turkey or suchlike, low-fat yogurt, juice and coffee. And water.
Lunch: A warm meal, depends on what's available at work. Lots of vegetables. And water.
Snack: Typically a banana. And water.
Dinner: A warm meal, normal home cooking, again with lots of vegetables. And water.
Snack: Wholegrain bread or suchlike, fruit and/or vegs. And water.

Guess you can tell by now that drinking lots of water is also considered good for you when losing weight... :) I know many out there include a third snack somewhere and perhaps eat less for lunch and dinner, but this has worked for me so far. I try not to eat after 8 PM, but if the going gets too tough, I'll have an apple or suchlike. If you're really hungry, it might be better to eat a little bit of something. Otherwise a couple of hours later when you're really hungry you'll end up eating a lot of something.
 
If you want to learn something about calories try
There is also a bit on that blog about weights etc. Most of this info can be found on wikipedia.com under dieting i think
 
Barnold's advice is solid Wes. The most common problem with losing weight is that the wrong kind of weight is easy to lose - you want to lose body fat weight - NOT muscle weight. Unfortunately, most scales only show overall weight. People who diet badly see the results on scales, but what sometimes is really happening is that they are losing it from their muscle mass because the dieter is starving it of food. You can end up retaining the body fat and become what someone called a skinny fat man - the scales might read nice and low - a perfect BMI, but you could be wimpy, with body fat hanging on.

So learn to control your diet sensibly. Aim to lose 1 or 2 lb per week, no more. ALWAYS eat a breakfast, and eat small meals throughout the day. Avoid saturated fatty foods - eat low fat alternatives. Don't avoid all fats though - a lot of good proteins come with some fats - and some fats are good for you in moderation, such as those found in nuts and some fish. If you eat meat (which is protein rich), then eat lean meat - cut off any fat - some meats are better than others, such as chicken breast and tuna. Avoid foods that are high on the Glycemic Index - such as white bread, white rice, white pasta - but don't avoid allstarchy carbs - replace the whites with wholegrain alternatives such as wholemeal bread, whole cereals (such as oats), and brown rice. Make sure that you eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg daily. Drink plenty of water, and get plenty of sleep.

In short, what you need to do is to gain a new education - you need to learn what your body requirements are - you have to appreciate good nutrition, design a healthy balanced diet based on that - but cut the calories below your daily calorific requirements. Now as to what your calorific requirements are, and how far below them you should cut - to tell the truth, I don't know (I was always to lazy to find out, and couldn't be bothered cal counting) - but it is a great idea to find out, especially if you find that you either can't lose that weight, or lose too much too quick. Someone on here should be able to point out for you - there are plenty of cal counters on here, if not the try a search engine.

Combine your diet with exercise - Cardio (running, jogging, cycling, swimming) is a great way of eating up the cals. It also exercises your heart and respiratory system, so its important. Strength training can help you maintain that muscle mass, so its also important. However, you are still young, and your skeleton is probably still growing, so you really should check with a doctor and gym staff before you exert yourself with weights - you could harm yourself long term. You should at least keep to low weights and lots of reps.

REST is as important as exercise. It takes around 36 hours (or so I read somewhere) for muscles to rebuild and repair tissue following an exercise, so don't strength train the same muscle group without at least a day break in between. Some trainers exercise different mucle groups on alternating days, but most also have at least one day per week doing nothing but rest. The recommendation for strength training is to restrict it to no more than four sessions per week, with at least one day of rest in between sessions. You can use cardio in between strength training sessions - I alternate between cardio days and strength training days, but opinion is divided over how efficient that is. You could also take a look at HIIT (High intensity interval training) - where on cardio days, you sprint really hard for short bouts, with lots of walking intervals. Try a search engine for a program.

The good news is that you can do it. I am concerned about your age, so check with a doctor and with fitness professionals before you do yourself any harm - DONT OVER DO IT!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top