Posted: 5/11/2009 2:10:21 PM EDT
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I'm 39 years old, 5' 8" 170lbs. I would like to lose 10lbs of fat. I workout 6 days a week but my body weight stays the same. Seems like no matter what I do there's no real change in weight. Here's my current diet and workout. Mon & Wed 90 minutes karate. I would describe this as moderate aerobic exercise with push ups and sit ups. A decent warmup with a lot of bag work. Tue & Thu Fencing 3 to 4 hours. This is a hard leg workout and can be a very hard aerobic workout depending on the opponent. Fri Off Sat Weight lift for upper body. Currently incline bench, push press, pull ups, and standing curls. I keep the sets heavy with the rep range between 3 to 6. Sun Weight lift lower body. Currently deadlifts starting with a set of 10 and working up to singles. Usually about 15 sets total. I follow this up with 3 sets of calf raises. Diet Breakfast cereal with whole milk during the week. Eggs bacon and toast on the weekend. Lunch left over dinner Snack before I workout usually something like peanut butter crackers Dinner whatever my wife cooks. Usually 6 to 8 ozs of meat, potatoes or rice, and a vegetable. I change the weight lifting exercises every 6 to 8 weeks. I stick to exercises like squats, dead lifts, presses, rows, pull ups, and bench press. So what should I do differently? I really want to drop the extra fat. I figure it would help my sparring in karate and the fencing. I find sometimes I'll be winning a fight only to lose it in the end when I run out of gas. Thanks |
| I just started P90x on top of my other workout routines and have found this to be highly effective. This along with a diet change have shown quick results. Cut the bacon as well, replace in with turkey bacon. Not quite as good but to drop that last bit of fat you really have to put out. Not easy and not fun, but if you really want the results, you gotta deal with the crappy part. |
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The simple answer? Eat less.
I exercise 6 days a week. If I want to lose weight I'll just eat 300 kcals/day less. If, after a week, I still haven't lost weight, I drop it by another 100 kcals/day. Once I get to the point I'm losing 1-2 lbs/week I maintain that caloric intake. RF |
| throw in some sustained cardio, running,basketball,biking, whatever fits your style. I'm bad on my own diet so i can't help you their or i'd be a hypocrit, but don't eat thick meals all the times i know sounds girly but grilled chicken and salad is the way i go with the occasional protein shake if i'm too exhausted to eat. start eatin wheat bread, fruit, steamed veggies ditch the whole milk and go to fat free milk. Drink lots of water, not only boosts your metabolism but also if drinkin before meal can curb your appetite a little. |
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I just started P90x on top of my other workout routines and have found this to be highly effective. This along with a diet change have shown quick results. Cut the bacon as well, replace in with turkey bacon. Not quite as good but to drop that last bit of fat you really have to put out. Not easy and not fun, but if you really want the results, you gotta deal with the crappy part. I'll look into it. I've heard about P90x but don't know much about it. |
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The simple answer? Eat less. I exercise 6 days a week. If I want to lose weight I'll just eat 300 kcals/day less. If, after a week, I still haven't lost weight, I drop it by another 100 kcals/day. Once I get to the point I'm losing 1-2 lbs/week I maintain that caloric intake. RF 300 cals shouldn't be too hard to cut. I'll probably start by cutting out all soda and alcohol until I lose the weight. |
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throw in some sustained cardio, running,basketball,biking, whatever fits your style. I'm bad on my own diet so i can't help you their or i'd be a hypocrit, but don't eat thick meals all the times i know sounds girly but grilled chicken and salad is the way i go with the occasional protein shake if i'm too exhausted to eat. start eatin wheat bread, fruit, steamed veggies ditch the whole milk and go to fat free milk. Drink lots of water, not only boosts your metabolism but also if drinkin before meal can curb your appetite a little. I was talking to a guy at karate last night who told me the same thing. He said I need to do 1 hour of sustained cardio 2 to 3 times a week. He said it should be low intensity were I could hold a conversation but not sing as he put it. I'm going to start walking at lunch. It's about the only time I can fit it in. |
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Cut all sugar and processed carbs. Cereal is doing you no good....I'd replace with eggs more often to be honest....
I'm not a subsriber to the "sustained cardio" argument. I've run 3 marathons and never lost very much weight or got defined doing it. INTENSITY burns fat.... People get sick of me I'm sure, but if you want the best way to get strong and fast, lose fat and get defined www.Crossfit.com is the best way to go IMO (along with a good diet). I would NOT cut the whole milk in favor of fat free....that stuff is disgusting...it's INCREDIBLY processed and ends up having a decent amount of sugar in it. Whole mile (and all fat for that matter) in MODERATION will NOT make you fat. |
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cut out the high fat in your diet.... "whole" milk go to skim "bacon" dear god! cut that out "peanut butter crackers" thats gotta hurt... sub in good whole foods in their place and enjoy the fat loss I absolutely disagree. Eating fat (in moderation) does not make you fat. Excess carbs makes you fat. This "low fat" craze has been the big thing for decades and what do we have to show for it? When you have a low amount of carb intake (think nothing but veggies and a couple pieces of fruit) and a higher fat intake, your body will actually USE the fat as energy.... I've gone under 10% body fat and remained fast and strong while eating like this. |
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that being said, some fats are good for you... however some arent. like bacon fat and peanutbutter thats loaded with sugar and hydrogenated soy bean oil. get the natural stuff thats just peanuts and salt. Good point, and once you get used to the natural stuff, the "regular" stuff tastes kinda gross... |
| Yea no soda is a good way to go. Alcohol in moderation is doable trust me. Vodka and whiskey are good choices, for beer becks light is the best option. With that... only drink once a week and you should be fine. If your interested in the P90x at all send me an IM or an email. |
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I'll second the Crossfit plus Zone/Paleo type program.
And start keeping a food journal to get a real idea of your daily intake. You didn't mention soda or alcohol in your original post, so it's likely you're skipping over a few other things in your diet that aren't helping. |
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The simple answer? Eat less. I exercise 6 days a week. If I want to lose weight I'll just eat 300 kcals/day less. If, after a week, I still haven't lost weight, I drop it by another 100 kcals/day. Once I get to the point I'm losing 1-2 lbs/week I maintain that caloric intake. RF 300 cals shouldn't be too hard to cut. I'll probably start by cutting out all soda and alcohol until I lose the weight. That's pretty much what I do. If I'm not losing weight I try and cut out 100 kcals/day. I usually say "When I get home from work, I'll just have a small snack instead of my usual XYZ. If that doesn't work I keep doing it until I'm losing however much I want to each week. I've noticed that weigh loss isn't very linear either. Sometimes cutting out an additional 100 kcals/day can cause me to go from not losing any weight to dropping over 1 lb/week, which is more than you'd expect a 700kcal/week reduction in calories to do. And it's pretty easy if you cut out the liquid calories. They don't really fill you up, so you don't feel as hungry as if you cut out 300 kcals of protein or something more filling. Good luck!! RF |
| I see several people saying to eat less, but I'm wondering if you are actually eating enough. You seem fairly active so I'd see what I'm taking in caloriewise first and see if I'm getting enough food. I also don't see a snack between breakfast and lunch. I'd recommend starting there. |
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I see several people saying to eat less, but I'm wondering if you are actually eating enough. You seem fairly active so I'd see what I'm taking in caloriewise first and see if I'm getting enough food. I also don't see a snack between breakfast and lunch. I'd recommend starting there. This is actually a good point. Go to one of those websites where you can track your exercise and food intake for free. I like http://www.fitday.com. Record everything you eat and all your exercise for a couple weeks. See what kind of numbers you come up with. But you also have to remember that everyone is different. Just because one 6' 180lb guy can lose weight by burning 600 kcals/day through exercise and eating 3000 kcals/day, doesn't mean the next 6' 180lb guy doing the same thing will lose weight too. RF |
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1 pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories.
You have to cut out 500 calories every day for 1 week just to lose 1 pound. Dieting can be a slow and lengthy process but math doesn't lie! 1500 calorie/day diet = 1 pound per week 1000 calorie/day diet = 2 pounds per week [eating less than 1200 calories a day is not recommended] another thing to realize is that if the treadmill says you've burned 300 calories, your body at rest would normally burn about 100 calories so you've really only burned 200 calories more than you normally would. |
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1 pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. You have to cut out 500 calories every day for 1 week just to lose 1 pound. Dieting can be a slow and lengthy process but math doesn't lie! 1500 calorie/day diet = 1 pound per week 1000 calorie/day diet = 2 pounds per week [eating less than 1200 calories a day is not recommended] another thing to realize is that if the treadmill says you've burned 300 calories, your body at rest would normally burn about 100 calories so you've really only burned 200 calories more than you normally would. I'm glad I only need to drop about 10 pounds. This dieting sucks 
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I see several people saying to eat less, but I'm wondering if you are actually eating enough. You seem fairly active so I'd see what I'm taking in caloriewise first and see if I'm getting enough food. I also don't see a snack between breakfast and lunch. I'd recommend starting there. This is actually a good point. Go to one of those websites where you can track your exercise and food intake for free. I like http://www.fitday.com. Record everything you eat and all your exercise for a couple weeks. See what kind of numbers you come up with. But you also have to remember that everyone is different. Just because one 6' 180lb guy can lose weight by burning 600 kcals/day through exercise and eating 3000 kcals/day, doesn't mean the next 6' 180lb guy doing the same thing will lose weight too. RF That Fitday site works great. I've been eating more than I thought. I was around 3000 cals per day. I guess I should reduce to 2500 and see where that gets me. |
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Eating less seems to be working. I've lost almost 3 pounds this week. The fitday website has been a huge help in tracking my calories eaten vs. burned. Cool, but be careful with the Fitday "calories burned" data. I don't know if it's better now, but I seem to remember it use to show that you "burned" 2500 calories just in exercise and other stuff like that. |
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cut out all alcohol - none, nada, zippo
i dont know how much you drink but your body metabolizes all alcohol before other calories, so if you are having drinks and eating as well the eats pretty much are stored as fats also i find running to be the best exercise to burn alot of cals and lose weight. mix easy runs with high intensity intervals like 800s |
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Two points:
1) As a weight loss MD told my GF, if calories in is less than calories spent, you will lose weight, and vise versa. 2) Fat in your diet triggers hormones that tell your body it is no longer hungry. If you cut all fat out of your diet, you make your body go into 'starvation' mode where your body holds onto stored fat as much as it can because it thinks there is a famine. This is one of the things I learned (and proved, at least for myself) from reading 'The Zone' original book. Good luck! |
| I'm just trying to keep it simple at this point and eat less than I burn. Right now I'm trying to eat 2500 cals a day or less. I was at 3000 or more. If 2500 doesn't work, I'll cut back a little at a time until I get results. I've also started walking 2 to 3 miles at lunch at least 3 days a week. |
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