Will this work?

Mikami Teru

New member
Hey, just found this site while browsing the net out of boredom, alot of intestesting info here.

I have always been overweight - I dont recall any day where I've been thin, not since I was 6 or 7 years old at least. I have had spurs of trying to lose weight in the past, but I always forgot or could never be bothered, or was too shy to excercise, alot of crap. I weigh in at about 255Lbs and I think I'm just past 6ft tall, it was 6ft when I measured last year. I have been told however that I really dont look that heavy, it is always met with shock when I tell someone. My body is either 37% or 27% fat - I can't remember what result I had last time I could check, but I know I'm healthy everywhere else (blood sugar level, heartrate, breath capacity ect) since I had a recent health checkup.

Things turned around last year when I was finally able to sign up for the gym on my 16th birthday, and my cousin (who lost about 55 pounds in 4-5 months I think) took me there 2-3 times a week. That only lasted 3-4 weeks however since he had a new job and couldnt do it anymore.

4 weeks ago, after alot of things happened in my life, I decided to act for the future with new ambitions in mind. So, I joined a gym which I can get to myself.

At the old gym, the trainer there said I should focus on the cardio stuff for weight loss, so thats what I've been doing, but I've also been doing weights at this gym.

This is what I usualy do.

A 20 minute bike ride on weightloss mode in which I try and beat my previous distance, which was originaly 9.0km and is now 10.2KM after I gradually stepped it up a level and modifed it. The mode starts off easy (too easy infact, 4 minutes where my heartrate woldnt go above 140, so I increased that to make it feel like I was actually doing something, and so that I go faster and cover more distance to beat my previous record) and gradualy builds up to where it has 1 minute of level 8 and then one min of level 7 then one min of level 8 ect. This one always gets me knackered in the end and sweat dripping, especialy since its always like I'm racing myself in the last minute or so. I figure that is good for me so I carry that one on.

Now, the next bunch I never do in any particular order.

1000m on the rowing machine, again trying to beat my old time (best is 4:26 so far lol) but I don't know if I do that one right, it tires me but my forearms are always really stiff after it. I use my legs to push out first, when they are extended my arms come in to about the stomach area and I try not to move my back too much.

3 sets of 10 repitions of a weight that is fine at first, tiring in the second, and pretty hard (if not impossible forcing me to give up at 5) on the 3rd set for different sections of muscle on the premade weight lifting machines, I couldnt tell you what muscles they excersied because all I can remember is the little picture on the machine that shows you. They are upper body oriented though. There are 5 different machines that I do this on, and it usualy takes 20-30 mins to do them all.

I also use the dumbells and just do some bicep training according to ones I know from the past and ones from well explained diagrams pinned to the wall.

I do occasionaly go on the treadmill, but that machine scares me, I don't like how I'm not in direct control of my movement and it feels like I could fall of at any given moment. I try and jog for 4-5 mins, then walk for another 5 to recuperate, and by then I feel full of energy, so I run another minute (or as long as I can bear) practically sprinting to finish off (which really just finishes the last of my energy off)

Also, I get this weird problem on that machine, that only appears on the treadmill and not ordinary walking/running. In the first 2 weeks it was fine, my ankles got very stiff though and I couldn't manually bend my foot forward of backward for a minute or 2 after coming off it. In the 3rd week, just like when I had gone last year, running for a few mins gave a terrible pain in the back of my legs (past the knee before the ankle) and I have to stop immidiately - its like some kind of cramp, I really don't know, after not using that machine for a while I found it could run fine on it whithout that happening again, I'm afraid it will reappear soon however.

Then I round this all off with 5 minutes on the crosstrainer (which is an odd machine, I don't get how it trains your arms when it makes alot of concentration to push your arms in tune with your legs - and then it makes your legs feel like they arent doing anything, so you go back to normal)

I drink plenty of water everyday. After these 4 weeks, I haven't lost any weight (I think, I never took a precise measurement) but I certainly feel fitter and my face is a little thinner, aswell as my general body being a tiny bit slimmer (apparently). I was told I should wait 6 weeks for results, so thats 2 weeks to go. Shouldnt I have started losing *some* weight by now though? especially since I have so much of it.

Take note, I have not altered my diet in any way, that is because I know nothing in the way of a good diet and I do not control what gets bought in this house. I have however cut out the needless snacking out of boredom and the cheese and cracker/toast meal before I sleep (which is a bad old habit, I'm not even that hungry when I make that) I also decided that if 50% of it is diet and 50% excersie (an idea I conjured up myself) then doing 50% of it must lose some fat. I am starting to realize after coming here that this is not the way forward, but I don't know what a "calorie deficient" diet actually is.

Sorry for the long post, I tend to get carried away. Thanks for advice.
 
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Hello Mikami! Looks like you are off to good start. Just sticking with it for 4 weeks is an accomplishment most don't make. You are definitely making the correct call in incorporating weight training with your cardio for fat loss. I would have thought a professional trainer would have advised that as well. I wonder how often that happens due to them just not wanting to take time to properly educate new members on proper techniques for weight training?

I would suggest reading some of the stickies in the different sub forums on this board. A lot of good tips on weight training and incorporating it into your overall fitness program.

About the soreness. Are you properly stretching and warming up before you begin your routine?

As far as the weight goes. You can never really expect big gains without significant alterations to your diet. You may well have burned a lot of fat during your 4 weeks that just hasn't translated to the scales. If you are still in a caloric surplus your weight training may even add lbs. to the scales as you gain muscle mass.
 
I'm going to say that I believe diet should be MORE than 50% of your game plan. You need to read the stickies around here and do some research on nutrition.
 
Great post, you're off to a good start.
I agree with LandonsBaby in that Diet is nearly ALL you need to loose fat; however.. as you'll read in the stickies and popular posts, When you ONLY do diet to loose weight, you end up loosing a small percentage of muscle mass with it, which is why strength training is important - so you keep the muscle you have and only loose weight by burning FAT.

Good luck and dont hesitate to ask more questions, even if they sound dumb when it comes to dieting the details make all the difference between a healthy life change and your typical yoyo/fad diet.

Welcome!
 
Hey thanks guys

Yea I'm at a loss when it comes to eating, I honsetly dont know how much is too much, when I'm really full, how often to eat, what to eat ect. I'll look around the forum for info on that stuff i guess, and use that fit day diary thing. Am I right in thinking I should look to about 1800 calories a day?

And no, I don't strech before I start (except arms for weights) I should really, there no excuse for not doing it
 
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