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[Beowulf]

so right now im 210, i need to lose 20 pounds and 8% body fat by july (yeah i know im a fatass, havent been able to work out in over a year)

but yeah, basicly ive been running about a mile, 4 miles on an exercising bike, and spend about 30 minutes in a steam room everyday, i dont usually eat breakfast, and eat a peice of fruit/yogurt and some sort of salad or vege soup for breakfast and generally chicken (not friend) for dinner,

just wondering if theres any suggestions about what i should add/drop of what im doing

[adonis]

Originally Posted by The Sundance Kid

eat 5-7 small meals a day, take a daily vitamin.

How tall/old are you?

Diet:
-increase meal frequency

-decrease portion sizes so that no food items are touching or mixed when plated. Ie. If your having spaghetti and a salad. Don't let either food item touch on your plate. Keep a nice clean "seperator/wall" between the foods. It's an easy way to decrease portion size.

-have vegetables/fruit with every meal/snack

-drink only non-calorie containing beverages. ie. tea, coffee, crystal lite, water.

-have a complete protien source with each meal. Ie. chciken, fish, beef, milk, quiona

-eat mostly whole foods. Not packaged, homemade meals. Something Mom would eat.

-Save "other" carbs like sugar for the postworkout period if needed.


Cardio:
-Try doing 3-5 HIIT workouts per week. Essentialy just interval training. I like; 60's sprint/60's recovery/8-10 sets. Or 20's sprint/10's recovery/8-10 sets. Or Incline hill runnning. Or 400meter sprints.

-Try doing only 1-2(if you have less than 15% BF you could do 3 sessions) steady state cardio workouts each week. 30-40 minutes at a hamster pace.

-Increase NEPA; non-exercise physical activity. By walking to work, taking the stairs, standing vs sitting, holding abdominals isometrically contracted...


Weight training:

-you need to preserve muscel mass so 2-3 total body weight training workouts would be advised. I like to use 5sets of 5reps @ 40secRi on day 1. 4 sets of 8-10reps on day 2, and a "complexes" type of workout for day 3.
Remeber a TB workout includes: 1 compound leg mov't, 1 compound upper push mov't, 1 upper compound pull mov't and some other stuff like abs.

ie:
Day 1 5x5 @ 40sec Ri
A: Barbell front squat
B: Barbell push-press
C: 1/4 bent over barbell row
D: Single leg dumbbell deadlift
E: Chins x max reps
F: Incline dumbbell bench press
G: Dumbbell external rotations x 10-12reps
H: An abs mov't

[Beowulf]

im 20 and im 6'1

the only problem with eating small meals and spending a while working out, is i work 5am - 2:30 pm 5 days a week, and my wife generally works from 5 or 6pm to like 12. so like 5 days a week i get to spend about 90 min in the gym and 2 days a week i go twice each for about 2 hours

the reason im doing this is i need to by the end of july to leave for bootcamp for the navy

like for instance today, woke up at 10:30, ate a nutri grain bar, drunk a glass of green tea, went to the gym, rode a bike for 4 miles, did some bicep and chest workouts, 200 crunches, spent 15 minutes in the sauna, ran 1.5 miles, spent 15 minutes in the steam room, then played basketball for a bit, came home, ate a bowl of special k cereal with a banana, then im planning on going back to do the same thing and eat a chicken salad tonight, the only things im drinking are water, vitamin water, green tea, and hawiiaan punch

on a side note, whats the difference bewteen a sauna and steam room, i mean i know how theyre different but which should i spend more time in

[Rufio]

I wouldn't do cardio and lifting on the same day. Additionally, instead of a nutri-grain bar you should grain some Met-Rx Protein Plus bars from CVS. Those can be decent meal replacements for while you're at work. There's also Myoplex drink 4-packs you can get at Publix which are also great meal replacements.

[Beowulf]

well im mainly just trying to lose weight so i do cardio everyday, all i do really are curls, shoulder press, and bench press, should i drop lifting?

and thanks about the tip for bars and myoplex, i actually work at publix so it will be easy

[Rufio]

A Myoplex 4-pack is about $12, so it can be pricey, but it's no worse than a Subway sub.


Anyway, lifting can help because muscle speeds up your metabolism, BUT the thing is that to build muscle you need a caloric surplus (taking in more calories than you expend) the day you lift and it helps to keep a caloric surplus the day after. It's kind of a paradox. To build muscle you need a TON of calories which makes cardio counter-productive, but once the muscle's there, it speeds up your metabolism and helps you acheive calorie deficits, thus fat loss, more often.


Do what Adonis said, HIIT. I just started it and I'm seeing continued results but without muscle loss.

[adonis]

Those workouts should take no longer than an hour. If you need to do less exercises per session

[Beowulf]

Cardio:
-Try doing 3-5 HIIT workouts per week. Essentialy just interval training. I like; 60's sprint/60's recovery/8-10 sets. Or 20's sprint/10's recovery/8-10 sets. Or Incline hill runnning. Or 400meter sprints.

sorry man just dont know what you mean by 60's sprint/60's recovery

[Rufio]

He means 1 minute of running really fast and one minute of jogging or fast walking to "recover" from the sprint portion. Y'know, "intervals" of intense running and slower cardio for recovery from the intense portion. The goal of HIIT is to shock your metabolism with these intervals that leap back and forth in intensity.

[Beowulf]

alright thanks man, i appreciate it,

are a sauna and steam room basicly the same? the gym i go to has both but dont they do pretty much the same thing