Here I go again

[Fatguy]

Hello everyone,

Great forum. I would like to run my plan by you. I am 41 years old. I'm 5'11' and I would guess I weigh about 220. You see, I refuse to step on the scale until the end of the month. Just to depressing! I can't beleive that I wear a size 40 pant (a little large but the 38's just don't do it anymore).

Anyway, here is my current program. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I start with 30 minutes walking on the treadmill. I usually do this at about 3.7 to 4 mph. My goal here is to burn calories and warmup for weights.

After the 30 min treadmill, I do the following. For the first two weeks, I am only doing one set as I'm sore the next day. I do not wish to hurt myself right out of the gate. I will begin two sets each next week.

Crunch
Back Extension
Bench Press
Fly
Shoulder press
Bicep curl
Tricep pushdown
shrugs
Lat pulldown
either squat/leg press/leg extension

On Tuesday and Wednesday I spend 30 minutes on the treadmill alternating between walking and jogging (intervals inc more walking than jogging at this point)

On saturday and Sunday I walk on the treadmill for 40 minutes at the same pace I use on MWF.

The diet is improving greatly. Less eating out and more balanced meals. A lot more salads and veggies and less crap. The goal is to get the weight off while improving my physical conditioning for golf and biking etc. Tired of being a lard and it's not getting easier the older I get. So, what do you think. Do you think this will start to get the weight off at a decent pace? Consider this a cry for help. I really want to make this work.

[TeflonTron]

Hey there. Sorry to see that no-one has picked up on this thread (I'm sure that they've just missed it, that's all). Anyway, I think that it's great that you've decided to start changing the body that you have, and it's great that you've listed everything so well. Personally, I think that for the fiorst few weeks everything that you've listed is perfect. As you said, the worst thing to do is start off too quickly. I would say that as you're overweight (although 220 is by no means that bad) the cardio is more important than the weightlifting, although the weights are good to ensure that your muscles are nicely toned. Do you have a wife or partner, as sometimes they can be the greatest pillar of strength. Either way, I would suggest keeping a rough journal of what you eat (not so strict that life becomes boring, but just so you have a general idea) and not too worry too much if you have a "cheat day" once a week, although try not to cheat too much. Likewise, I find it helpful to keep a log of the exercises that you do, along wit the the weights, and how you felt in gerneral (back was hurting, pushed too hard, couldn't complete last rep etc) and then when you start to feel down, you can look back and see how far you've come. One tip though: don't get disheartened if you seem to hit a stage where the weight doesn't want to shift, as that's natural. Good luck, stay focused, and keep me informed, as you can do it.

Ross

[Lady C]

Originally Posted by TeflonTron

the cardio is more important than the weightlifting, although the weights are good to ensure that your muscles are nicely toned.

I would kindly disagree on this one - they are equally important. Mix both into your workout!

[Octagon]

I would disagree with cardio being more important for fat burning as well. Cardio is absolutely critical from a health and longevity standpoint and pretty much anything that gets one off the couch can't hurt but cardio is generally overrated as a direct fat burner.

Resistance training is at least as good a fat burner as cardio and in some ways is even superior.

And there's another matter of priorities here that might be far more relevant.

The bulk of the original post is devoted to discussing workout strategies and there's one vague paragraph about nutrition tacked on almost as an afterthought.

If you're serious about getting rid of excess fat you really oughta reverse that.

Unless you're one of those genetically gifted nineteen year old freaks (who we all reasonably enough hate) then no amount of exercise no matter how carefully planned can fully counteract the whole 'garbage in garbage out' nature of nutrition.

[threenorns]

true dat.

you have to look at balance - it sounds all hippy-yippy-tree-huggy-let's-all-eat-granola, but it's the plain, unvarnished truth.

if your eating system is shot, then you're not getting the full benefit from your workouts. if your workouts are out of whack, then you're not getting the full benefits of your eating system.