After seeing the other thread about losing the soda belly...I have decided to try and lose weight as well!

I am 5'11/6'0 and 180 with not much muscle. According to the BMI scale I am a 24.4/6'0ft or 25.1/5'11ft and 25-29.9 is considered overweight. Anyways, I would like to lose roughly 10ish pounds, the more the better! Ugh, I dream of havin some abs by summer!

We have a pretty good oliptical machine, though I have never really used it. So I dont really know what level to put it on or how long to do it for.

I bought some Slim Fast Optima (controls hunger up to four hours)today so heres my diet!

Breakfast:
Life Cereal

Lunch:
Cup o Soup Ramon noodles (I know there bad, but I have a couple left)

Dinner:
Slim Fast Optima shake with a yogurt and a multi-vitamin

For my two snacks, I will have a Slim Fast Optima bar once and a crunchy granola bar. Or maybe a handful of peanuts.


I plan on recording the fat and calories in everything I eat. Though I am almost 100% positive this is not going to be enough to eat in a day. Anyone have any suggestions on how to feel full? If I drink to much water i'll have to pee like 12,000 times a day...up from the 6,000 I normally do. lol

To work on the abs, I plan on laying on my bed, so that my upper body is hanging off the bed and lifting myself to work the abdominal muscles.

 

Well whats your goals? To lose weight or build muscle? Your body needs more food in order for your muscles to grow... My suggestion would be to join a gym, lift some heavy weights 3 times a week, do cardio and run every other day. With your size I would consume around 2500-2700 calories a day. You dont wont to just stop eating all together though. Just cut out all the crappy foods and consume plenty of protien. Try to get in 150-200 grams of protein a day. This should helpgain musclewhile losing some fat.

 

Easiest way to lose that weight is to have a leg cut off. Obviously, choose the one you use the least.

 

the BMI scale is a joke... anyone who is serious about health will tell you it's the biggest load of crap.

also, instead of wearing out your bed, you should go spend 20 bucks on an exercise ball... it's worth it and pretty versatile..

you can do crunches/situps, pushups, squats, etc... then do some cardio like jumping jacks and yer on a good start.

 

My wife is a dietitian and even she admits the BMI scale is garbage. It only takes height and weight into account. It does not at all consider muscle mass. If you looked at the BMI for a heavyweight bodybuilder at his "contest weight" it would show he was morbidly obese. Even although he only has around 1% bodyfat at contest weight.

The best way to lose fat is eat 5-6 small meals a day. And drink a ton of water. If you do this, you will not be hungry at all. I am doing it now and I've lost 15lbs in 3 weeks. Do not cut out too much food though or you will not lose a pound of fat. Your body will go into "starvation mode" and it will start eating away at muscle instead of fat. It does this to try to store as much fat as possible if there is a famine or something, like in the old days.

If you want your abs to show, you need to do cardio. Get on that elliptical and do it for about 30 minutes. Go fast enough that your heart rate gets up pretty good.
The excercise ball spaz mentioned also works excellent for abs. Or you can do regular old crunches on the floor. But when you do them, never let your shoulders touch the ground on the way down - that keeps constant tension on the muscles and doesn't let them rest. Always breathe out on the way up and breathe in on the way down. That works the abs better.
Your abs will not show if you don't do cardio though.

If I were you, I would eat around 2000 calories a day.
If you can, eliminate salt (sodium) as much aspossible from your diet. All sodium does is makes you retain water.The worst sodium filled things at the store arecaned soups. Even the "reduced sodium" kinds have around 1000mg of sodium in the can. I recently saw at walmart a"salt substitute" that tastes almost exactly like salt, but all it contains is potassium. I use that instead of salt.

If you want to gain some muscle mass, hit me up and I'll tell you some supplements that work well for almost anyone. I can also tell you some great excercises at the gym to pack on some muscle. the best thing to do is research though. I just re-subscribed to Musclemag International. it helped me a lot when I was losing fat/gaining muscle when I was back in high school (I went through a lot of muscle magazines and Musclemag was the best on IMO.) Also, the Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwartzenegger is a very good resource. It contains about every muscle building excercize known to man as well as some good workout routines. it is a huge book and has illustrations instructing you how to do all of the excercises. i think you can get it at most book stores for about $30. I highly recommend it.

 

or i've got a better idea, (like j_man said) go to the gym and get yourself a trainer. U should eat only 6 meals a day , and each meal, cup-size. No fastfoods, fats or fried food, no soda, .......eeeehhhmmmmm....... run, and a lot of will-power. We are all behind you man! About the BMI scale, im 5'10 and 148lb.... It says im too skinny, when in fact i've got only 6% body fat and work out regularly...

 

If your eliptical machine has a heartrate monitor, you should use that to gauge how hard to set it. For fat burning, your heartrate should be around 120-135 bpm. For cardio it should be 130-145. 25 minutes is the bare minimum for either type of exercise and for fat burning, you should be running for about 45 minutes. Obviously there is no problem increasing these times once your body is used to your routine, but be careful that you don't try too hard at first and discourage yourself. The most important thing is consistancy. Find a workout that achieves your goals without killing yourself.

 

Alright, just finished my first workout on the elliptical.

I turned on the weight loss mode, which has a time of 48 minutes, and switches the resistence between 4 and 6 on a scale of up to 14.

In 48 min. I went 3.60 miles and burned 366 calories. My heart rate was usually around the high 160's. Its a really nice elliptical, Horizon Fitness, i'll include a bad pic in a bit. I;m going to have my whey protein shake now.

 

Nice, I would also go runningoutside depending on where your at and how cold it is. Breathe in some fresh air. What have you eaten today? Have you considered tracking calories on www.fitday.com? And at your height and weight your crazy for trying to lose weight in my opinion. But i guess if your just trying to be healthier thats cool.. I am 6'1, 200lbs and I have gained 30lbs. in 6 months(muscle and fat). I am still bulking and will stop at 210lbs. Then I will cut and hopefully loose most of the fat ive gained...

And yes the BMI is crap.....

 

Holy crap dude!!! high 160's!!! I have to sprint for 2 minutes straight to get into that range!!! When you are working that hard, remember to cool down. I usually run on the eliptical set on 10 out of 20 for 25 minutes. In the first 2 minutes, I get my pulse up to about 110-115 and up to full rate and speed by 5 minutes (175 steps per min., 145 bpm pulse). After the 25 minutes are done, I cool down for 2 minutes. Basically I walk as slowly as I can without the monitor turning off. I do 1:20 forward, 0:30 backward and another 10 seconds forward. My cooldown is done after 2 minutes if and only if my heartrate is below 110. This will keep you from cramping and harming future exercises.

For the record, I'd prefer to run longer, but 25 minutes fits the timeslot that I use to workout in the middle of the day. I mainly concentrate on cardio, stamina and consistancy. I use manual settings only.