Diets

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Is anybody currently on one? what has worked for you?

Ive been trying to watch what I eat its hard as heck as im sure most of you know. Ive been exercising regularly and cut back on on the junk and soda.
Anyways anybody else make changes of some sort?

[RoyalShock]

I did a diet once. Lost about 10 lbs. in a month. It was one of those where you essentially replace carbs with protein. Lots of lean meat (chicken, steak) and green vegetables. Not much bread or potatoes. Small meals with in-between snacks. It also had a workout program with it. I believe it was called "Power 90".

My wife was more dedicated to it and lost 25 lbs. in three months. She was in pretty good shape after that.

[kcshocker11]

ASM- Try this take your weight and add a 0 then add your weight to it.

Example 200 lbs
add 0 = 2000
2000 + 200 =2200 which is the amount of calories you can eat and maintain your weight at 200 lbs(without exercise)

Then subtract whatever amount you wish and calculate the amount of lbs you wish to lose a week. Try not to lose more than 2 or 3 lbs per week.
Rem most weight lost at first is water.

You can eat what you wish. But rem if you dont eat whats good for you you are slowly starving your body.

As far as exercise I walk 1 hour a day 4.0 on treadmill and workout with weights
1. Chest, triceps
2 back, biceps
3. legs
4shoulders, neck, forearms
5 only walk
6 only walk
start over

I'm 52 and have worked out since I was 12. I have trained with some of the most famous bodybuilders in the world.

You are younger and should customize your routines to your fitness level, age and body type.

go to DaveDraper.com excellent site

books
Arnolds enclopedia of modern bodybuilding
Keys to the inner universe, Bill Pearl

Good luck !

[Veritas]

Cut your carb intake, increase protein, drink a lot of water, cut back on diet drinks, and exercise. Don't eat after 8pm. Eat a lot of little meals daily. And I'll say it again.... cut your carb intake. You'll drop weight quickly. Eat what you want on Saturdays (beer included).

[RoyalShock]

. . . cut back on diet drinks . . .

Not just diet drinks, but anything that uses Aspartame. It's said that it increases your appetite. There are diet drinks out there that use Splenda instead of Aspartame. I think those are ok. Red Raspberry Diet Rite Zero is pretty good.

[Hotel Paper]

Cut your carb intake, increase protein, drink a lot of water, cut back on diet drinks, and exercise. Don't eat after 8pm. Eat a lot of little meals daily. And I'll say it again.... cut your carb intake. You'll drop weight quickly. Eat what you want on Saturdays (beer included).

Don't eat after 8 and watch your body feed on your muscle and using it as energy.
for weights I go to http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/articles.htm
for cardio, I do HIIT: High intensity interval training. It's quicker and more much rewarding than hour long cardio sessions.

http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

I eat 6 times a day (every 3 hours), I do HIIT on wednesday and saturday and weights monday, tuesday, thursday, and friday.
I eat around 2,500 calories a day. Don't go by the 2,000 calorie diet thing on the back on food boxes. you're ingesting too little calories throughout the day.

[EAGLE]

And when all else fails try "Wieght Watchers". I know for a fact it works!!!

[kcshocker11]

As you can tell ASM there are many opinions. Bottom line is calories in vs calories out. There are approx 3500 calories per pound. The formula I gave you was recommend by Mike Mentzer, a Mr Universe. A safe way to go is to cut your calories by 500 per day + the calories used up in exercise. You can eat all potato chips if you like but as I said you will be starving your body.

What should you eat? Eat what they call clean foods (very little processing)

http://www.davedraper.com/general-nutrition.html

I refer you to Draper again (He is the real deal, Arnolds ex training partner and Mr Universe) (If you watched The Beverly Hillbillies he played himself as one of Ellys BF's)

If you decide on weights, use one of the beginner routines out of the books I recommended above or from Drapers site.

I personally spend no more than 30 min on weights a session. When I was younger I only spent 45 to an hour. I like no more than 15 sec of rest between exercise sets. Keep in mind I have built up to this over 40 years.

I am 52 years old
have a 50 inch chest
19 inch arms
33 inch waist
26 inch thighs
19 inch calves
6 % body fat

[Saulbadguy]

Crack is an often overlooked tool to speedy weight loss.

[kcshocker11]

Crack is an often overlooked tool to speedy weight loss.

LOL you probably didnt know that speeders were a common drug in gyms in the early 70's. Helped the person lose weight.

This is not an endorsement of speed or crack. :D

[Indy23]

Problem with diets: some folks on diets tend to think that, as long as the food is "light" or "low fat" they can eat more of it. It's like the study that suggests that people actually injest more calories at Subway than customers at McDonalds, because they tend to over-eat when they think they're being healthy.

Really, imo, the key to successful dieting is to not be an idiot. Cut down on the fat and sugar. Read the labels. Exercise. Once you've lost a few pounds, don't let yourself ruin what you've earned.

It's great if you're a workout hero like the dude who posted his measurements, but if you're just looking to lose a few, I'd start slower and find something about exercise that you enjoy. I love listening to new music while I jog, for instance. That way, you have a better chance of sticking with it.

I'd suggest taking some time to skim over menshealth.com, as cliche as that is. There really is some helpful advice on there about food, fitness, etc. and I think it's the most readable site of it's kind.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Thanks everybody

Yes there are alot of opinions but they all sound helpful for sure.

What got me into this kick was one day I just decided to hell with i wanted to slim down. My job is actually doing a nationwide "lose weight" competition where the different branches are going against each other so that was as good excuse as any to join and start doing it. I also read an article on ESPN about Tony Gonzalez swith to being a vegan and got me thinking about the foods I intake and so forth.

The contest started about a month - month and a half ago and I went from 231 to 211 *i just weighed in a minute ago* already. according to my BMI im still considered obese but to get to "perfect level" i would have to be at 165. I would be comfortable mainting anywhere between 185-200 range. but honestly I definitly want to be on < side of 200

I dont have the money for a gym membership nor do I have space (or money) for weights at home. So ive been running and doing pushups and sit ups.
A lady I work with just was diagnosed with diabetes so she has to start exercising as well so we try and walk right before our lunch hour.

I have completley cut back on colas/sodas and so forth. I only drink Gatorade and Water. I do however when I need a 'soda" if you will I drink Sprite Zero. The stuff is good. I want to try Coke Zero however I have basically eliminated that kind of caffeine from my diet. I will occasionally have a red bull but those are few and far between.

Ive been stocking up on Healthy Choice/Lean Cuisine/Weight Watcher Smart Ones meals every pay day. Are those the answer - NO however it eliminates me wanting to go out to eat all the time at work. Ill pop one of those in and be good.
I have very little intake of anything at work be it calories, fat etc. and while at work I ONLY drink water. Most of my calorie, fat, carb intake will be at the meals I eat at home. I try and stay away from stuff I KNOW wont be good for me *as far as diet is concerned* so ill try and load up on Salad and so forth. For those of you who might not know those canned turkey and chicken breast ARE GREAT especially in salads.
Ive been trying to stay away from snacking especially junk food. But ive recently got into rice cakes and so forth and I need to step my fruits game up. Indy you're right though about the healthy eating more thing. I try really hard to have moderation. no matter if its healthy or not.

My excerise regiment is very simple. I wake up and run before I go to work. Depending on whats going on after work I may run again. Im also doing pushups *regular and using The Perfect Pushup"* as well as variations of situps and crunches* Im basically running around my block which is slightly larger than a running track. maybe 200 300 yards per straight. i run the straights and walk the curves. Im only up to 2 circles right now. I can get to 3 however im kind of bleh afterwords. Im trying to take this all in moderation and not kill myself in the process.
I only do maybe 100 - 200 pushups/situps/crunches. that is a low number I know but at the same time. I dont really take a break inbetween. Ill do 10-20 take a quick breath and jump right into it some more. Usually when im done with using The Perfect Push Up illdo 50 -100 MORE pushups regular on the ground. Im not so concerned with muscle build as in mass. Lean is cool with me. Here in the next month Ill be kicking up my rep amount though.
Ive always thought using weights was a good way to get inshape. However im not really all that strong. and had a hard time even doing my own weight at times. So personally I think just doing my own weight for right now will benefit me in the long run. I will be joining a gym this next year. Finances should free up some then so right now its a waiting game.

Its funny you mention Speed haha. When I was 21 I was working at a Walmart in the warehouse. I worked at nights so I was getting a nice little work out from that. My friend gave me some Stacker 2 pills and I started taking those and going to the gym. I kid you not I dropped from about 190 to about 155. This was before the banning of ephedrine which was of course prominent in those things. I would tell people all the time "its legal speed* I still take it sometimes now. But not like I used to. I follow it STRICTLY to the instuctions on the box. *hence the no caffeine* But ill take it for a week. then stop for a week then go back. Essentially ive stopped using them. But once in a while I might take some.
I do need to start taking vitamins of some sort though. I need to read more and see what exactly is lacking from my diet and see what I can do to correct that.


Thanks for the links as far as nutrional stuff goes. That is and will be helpful for sure. Its payday and I need to hit the grocery store.

[ABC]

Portions, portions, portions.

And avoid refined sugar and potatoes. I try to avoid carbs, but find that tortillas, bread for burgers and sandwichies are just fine.

I find I can lose a few lbs by just avoiding potatoes, especially fries and regular pop. I go in spurts though, that I must have a Dr. Pepper.

[Indy23]

Sounds like you're off to a great start. Good luck man!

[WuBoy13]

I have cut white potatoes from my diet, and try to consume 6-7 servings of veggies and fruits a day. The wife and I will only consume red meat (beef) once or twice a week and have learned to supplement ground turkey for a lot of things we used to think could only use hamburger.

Also someone else mentioned it put portion control is an amazing tool.

The above and some exercise have helped me lose about 20-25 lbs in 8 weeks.