Losing Weight

[socialistjustin]

Basically, I am huge and want to lose at least 120 pounds. How can I lose this amount of weight in a reasonable time frame? I dont really have workout partners so playing team sports or boxing really wont work for me. I also only have 2 dumbbells and cant really spend much on any type of exercise equipment. Any nutritional tips would also be appreciated.



Also there have been people who have lost weight and have really disgusting loose skin. Is there any way to prevent this?


What types of pre exercise energy gels, drinks or bars would you guys recommend? I have heard good things about Clif Bloks and thats about it.

[F9]

For 120 pounds mate, i would really advice seing a professional.Best way to loose weight is change eating habits!!Of course exercise is also needed but if you dont change eating habits screw the exercise you wont loose anything...But for 120 pounds i cant really talk cause i wouldnt want to drive you either to starving or heavy exercising.That way you also have smaller chances of any loose skin etc also who is also pretty important.

[socialistjustin]

I actually gave up soda which should help a bit. I mean the effects will be minimal, but I figure its a start.


The one problem I have with changing my eating habits is that I cant cook. Healthy pre prepared food is horribly expensive so I find it quite easy to buy a digiorno and call it a day. You are definitely right though and I should change my eating habits.

[jake williams]

Any nutritional tips would also be appreciated.
Eat filling, high fibre food. Vegetables and whole grains. Avoid white bread, white rice and white pasta as much as possible. Not just about weight loss; it's much more nutritious. You'll feel fuller eating fewer calories and probably feel better too. It's also pretty easy - you don't have to eat very different food to do it. Obviously this isn't going to lose you 120 pounds, but it's a good start. It's more important to make easy changes in your life that you can stick to than it is to try to do really drastic things you can't keep doing and give up on a few weeks later.


Also there have been people who have lost weight and have really disgusting loose skin. Is there any way to prevent this?
Someone who knows anything and isn't just bullshitting can correct me, but I'm guessing if you lose weight really quickly it's more likely to happen than if you lose it gradually.

[xub3rn00dlex]

Eat filling, high fibre food. Vegetables and whole grains. Avoid white bread, white rice and white pasta as much as possible. Not just about weight loss; it's much more nutritious. You'll feel fuller eating fewer calories and probably feel better too. It's also pretty easy - you don't have to eat very different food to do it. Obviously this isn't going to lose you 120 pounds, but it's a good start. It's more important to make easy changes in your life that you can stick to than it is to try to do really drastic things you can't keep doing and give up on a few weeks later.


In addition, A couple of personal statistics would also help bud, such as age, current weight, height, BF%, gym accessibility, budget, any health conditions, etc. This would help us pool together a more specific guide for you in regards to your goals. Also, health conditions are SUPER important before starting ANY type of supplementation, as they can surely pose health problems. For example, a colleague of mine cannot digest creatine or take NO, but I take 30g a day on cycle and have to double up on NO servings to feel any effect.




Someone who knows anything and isn't just bullshitting can correct me, but I'm guessing if you lose weight really quickly it's more likely to happen than if you lose it gradually.

Correct, and it works both ways. Lose weight to quickly and you will be left with loose skin, but gain it too quickly and you'll have some nasty stretch marks ( personal experience, I actually don't mind them :P )

[PhoenixAsh]

Set up a gmail account PM it to me and I'll send you a document which deals with most of the information you should know about metabolism and how your diet affects it. How weight is lost and what you should do to lose weight. And how your diet should be constructed.


- Soda has a huge effect. It contains a shitload of sugar.
- Drink lots of water
- Eat fatty fish...this helps with lose skin a little.
- Don't lose weight to quickly if you are concerned with lose skin.
- Do not start by using supplements. Work from your diet...change your eating and drinking habits first.

btw...it doesn't need to be a gmail account. Just any anonymised account will do.

[xub3rn00dlex]

Set up a gmail account PM it to me and I'll send you a document which deals with most of the information you should know about metabolism and how your diet affects it. How weight is lost and what you should do to lose weight.


- Soda has a huge effect. It contains a shitload of sugar.
- Drink lots of water
- Eat fatty fish...this helps with lose skin a little.
- Don't lose weight to quickly if you are concerned with lose skin.
- Do not start by using supplements. Work from your diet...change your eating and drinking habits first.

I would say that depends on the type of supplement. Definitely start adding a multivitamin and omegas to your diet, zma at night ( with poor dieting you will have deficiencies ) and other fortifying supplements which include minerals and such. Don't start using anything that is more intensive is my recommendation, and if down the road you want to experiment then I can give you advice on more potent supplement usage and websites with detail.

[Sentinel]

I once lost 17 kg (about 37 lbs) in no more than three months, went from 90 kg (198,5 lbs) to 73 kg (161 lbs). Although I wasn't entirely immobile, I didn't exactly exercise during this time. My method was to eat almost the same food as usual, but in much smaller portions, and regulate my beer drinking to every other weekend.

Basically, my golden rule was eat a little and often. I did avoid white bread and switched from regular coke and sodas to diet coke, which I drank shitloads of, to help get rid of the feelings of hunger.

Good luck, whichever method you choose!

[tbasherizer]

I'd also advise to minimize your starchy carbs. Only 1/4 of a meal should be comprised of any rice, bread, or pasta. Get your carbos from fruit and veg and the minimal starches you can eat. Most people only think about cutting the fat out of their diets but don't realize that unused energy stores itself in the form of more fat. Starch is chockfull of energy, so if you cut down on it, that might be most of the battle.

What I find easy to do to evade the difficulty of preparing healthy foods is to not prepare them. Buy finger food veggies (broccoli, celery, carrots, etc.) and wash them prior to eating them. The same can be said with fresh fruit.

[Fopeos]

All of the above sound good. Cut out soda (or drink diet if you must), replace white bread with whole-grain, drink lots of water, snack on fruits or veggies. I'm a huge fan of running. It's what we're biologically designed to do. At your weight, start with walking for an hour or so. Walking burns calories, releases endorphins, and will loosen-up your joints for more exercise. Don't give up. If you slip up, don't get discouraged, try harder next time. Good luck. Keep us posted.

[Misanthrope]

Don't forget lots of sleep!

[socialistjustin]

Thanks to everybody. I was drinking diet soda already, but it really makes me sluggish so I will still drop it. Is regular Lipton Tea good to drink? That was pretty much the only other type of drink I really lobe.

I actually couldnt tell you my body fat%. I am 6'1 and weigh about 340. Even at that weight, I am pretty mobile. I can walk for miles without heavy breathing. I nearly die when I sprint, but I think thats normal for anybody who only runs when theyre trying to catch the bus. Not sure about gym accessibility as my budget is already stretched. I also have had 2 known concussions in the past and have memory problems because of it. I think thats it for health problems. I am 23.

[Nox]

I've had a very high metabolism for my whole life so I can't comprehend your situation, but I'll give it my best shot...

I don't want to sound like I'm taking the piss, but a good idea would be skipping breakfast, having a small-ish lunch and having an average sized meal. Use Soda to stop your hunger inbetween.

Soda is man's best friend. Juche + Coke + KFC = Heaven :thumbup1:

[Apoi_Viitor]

Is regular Lipton Tea good to drink? That was pretty much the only other type of drink I really lobe.

Only if it's green tea.

[deLarge]

I lost 70 pounds by way of moderate exercise and dieting. I wouldn't recommend diet soda or lipton tea, since the latter has simple sugar and the former has been linked in experiments to increased obesity, through as-of-yet unknown mechanisms.

Try getting loose-leaf green, black, or earl grey tea. It is actually fairly inexpensive, depending on the store. As for bags, some brands are better or worse than others. Lipton bags are nasty, though, and I only use them because they are dirt cheap.

Basically, cut out any simple sugars from your diet, unless they come from fruit. No soda, sugary drinks, limit yourself to dark beers (like Guinness or other porters) and red wine (some boxed varieties, if they have so sugar added, are fine, but even a $5 bottle of red wine is relatively healthy in moderation). Limit consumption of white bread and buns and that sort of thing. Eat more eggs, cottage cheese, oats, eggs, chicken, fish (sardines and canned tuna are vastly underrated), fruits, vegetables, and olive oil.

If you have a sweet tooth, try things like: Frozen berries, yogurt, and graham cracker, or mix uncooked oats with honey, a bit of whole wheat flour, cinnamon, and a tablespoon of olive oil. Cottage cheese is great with most any fruit, as well as melted on meat (plus it is high in protein).

And while these particular foods, and healthy foods in general, are good for your body, weight loss is ultimately a matter of [calories eaten] - [calories needed] = calories of fat added (3500 is 1 pound). Count your calories -- you can perfectly well gain weight eating healthy and lose weight eating twinkies, but the latter isn't necessarily healthy.


skipping breakfast, having a small-ish lunch and having an average sized meal. Use Soda to stop your hunger inbetween.
The other way around is usually better: concentrate calories at breakfast and lunch, have maybe a light dessert. That's what I do -- usually I have some oats at dinner, since they also help you sleep.

[Nox]

The other way around is usually better: concentrate calories at breakfast and lunch, have maybe a light dessert. That's what I do -- usually I have some oats at dinner, since they also help you sleep.

I'm just saying it from experience, I never eat breakfast and normally don't have any lunch, and I'm as thin as a Ukrainian peasant during Stalin's era :thumbup1:

[tbasherizer]

To replace the sodas, try straight up carbonated water. It's kind of tangy and fills the pop-shaped hole in my life.

[Quail]

I'm pretty bad at eating healthily myself, but I do know how to lose weight.


I don't want to sound like I'm taking the piss, but a good idea would be skipping breakfast, having a small-ish lunch and having an average sized meal. Use Soda to stop your hunger inbetween.

This is a really bad idea. Not eating enough during the day makes you more likely to binge on crap in the evening.

Try drinking lots of water, because sometimes when we feel hungry, we're actually thirsty. So if you want a snack, drink some water and wait a while and see if you still feel hungry.

As mentioned before, eat whole grains and lots of vegetables. Try making small changes such as walking up stairs instead of using lifts, walk instead of using the bus, etc.

Another thing that I do (which is mostly to stop myself from binge-eating, but might help you to control portions) is that I buy things in portion-sized packages and I don't keep junk food in the house.

One last tip is, don't deprive yourself. Eat a bit of chocolate, cake, pie, etc every once in a while. If you don't eat the things you enjoy occasionally, you'll get to a point where when you do eat them you go a bit crazy and massively binge on them, which will make it harder to get back on track.

Good luck with losing weight anyway.

[Il Medico]

Walk a mile a day. Even without changing my eating habits (tons of fast food and such) I lost 30-40 pounds in a little less than a month. (which I have since gained back as I stopped.) If you can eat healthier as well, it should only increase the weight loss.

[PhoenixAsh]

The first thing you need to do is change your dietary habits.

1). Eat seven meals a day....every two hours. Every meal is not a meal like dinner. You can simply start by dividing what you eat now over those meals. Eat every two hours. This will increase and speed up your matabolism. If you do nothing else doing this will help you lose some weight in itself.

2). Change what you eat.

Substitute everything that is not complex from your diet....for complex whole foods.
Substitute any, even diet, soda for water...water; tea or coffee. Water is essential in burning fat. Don't drink milk.

Grapefruits help burn fat. Eat half of one every day. They are bad for your teeth on the long run...so do not overdo it.

3). Change when you eat what.
Eat carbohydrates mainly in the morning and afternoon....and as the day progresses eat less of them. Don't eat them after 7-8 pm.

4). The line goes: if you eat less than you burn you will lose fat. Find out what amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight...then eat less than that. The rule of thumb is every 3500 calories represents one pound of bodyweight...
Do NOT overdo this to be overzealous. It will backfire when your body decides to go into starvation mode.


DO NOT FOLLOW ANY OTHER DIETS THAN THOSE WHICH INVOLVE DRASTICALLY CHANGING YOUR EATING HABBITS PERMANENTLY.


5). Muscles burn fat. So when you create a caloric deficit then you need to exercise in orderr to maintain muscle mass as long as possible. You can not build muscles when you want to lose weight for miore than a month. But you can prevent them being broken down by exercising.

6). Start exercise slowely. Build up to get your body to adopt to it.

7). Strength training burns more calories than cardio. Plus it increases muscle mass....which in turn will burn more calories. Cardio however will increase your overall fitness and health and increae your metabolism.

8). Do not sleep longer than 7-8 hours. (unless you are sick)

[PhoenixAsh]

I can not stress enough how increadibly important it is to eat regularly. Whatever you do do not skip meals. Thats the worst advice you can get or give to somebody losing weight.

I know that eating more frequent is counter intuitive. But here is how it works in short:

You metabolism is like a huge engine. If there is no oil or not enough oil in the engine the engine will slow down or stop. This means that if you do not eat...your metabolism will come to a screetching halt. Which means you are NOT burning any colories at all. What you need to do is keep the motor going for as long as possible and as fast as possible. The higher your metabolic rate the more calories you will burn. So if you eat every two hours...every meal will be largely digested before you eat the next one....which keeps the motor constantly fuelled and running...which means you are constantly burning calories.

Important to notice that muscles need the most calories...more muscles=more calories burned.

Now...if you consume more a day than your body burns...then you will add weight. If you eat leass than your body burns...then you will lose weight. The rule of thumb is 3500 calories = 1 pound of body weight.

There are two ways to increase the amount of calories your body burns:
1). Decrease the total amount of calories you eat & drink
2). Increase what your body burns by increasing activity levels and muscle mass

You can combine these two...

Now...when your body burns more calories than you eat then your body needs for longer periods of time it will fill in the deficit gap by doing two things:
1). decrease the amount of calories it needs
2). burn reserves

Pay attention here.

In short caloric deficit periods the body will burn fat mainly. In prolonged periods it will also react by decreasing muscle mass. If the body is not getting what it needs it wil adopt and "think" that it needs to remedy the situation. Not only does it burn fat storage but it will also break down muscle tissue to rebalance the caloric intake with what it needs.

You do not want your body to burn muscle. Muscle burns the most calories. Decreasing its amount will therefore decrease the amount your body burns...which means your body will stop needing to burn fat. Protein are more rapidly and easilly broken down than fat. so this can happen rapidly and that will require you to eat less and less to keep burning fat. If you keep this situation going for months then your body will start burning organs. You definately do not want this at all.

Previously scientists though the body would not do this unless fat storage had been completely depleted. But this is not true as any bodybuilder with a shitty diet or in a cutting diet can attest.

Fortunately there is an easy remedy to this. Resistance and strength training will signal the body that muscles are essential and needed so it can not burn them. Your body will therefore continue to emphasize fat burning, maintain its muscle mass.

So exercise is important. BUT...in the case of somebody who wants to lose 60 kgs of fat...its NOT the first priority.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It's 70% diet, 30% exercise mate.

120 pounds, what's that, 8.5 stone or so? That's a lot, so I suggest you change your diet in stages. Here's my thinking: you don't want to start eating a diet where you cut everything out right now and only eat 1500-2000 calories per day. You'll lose a lot of weight in the first month or so, but then you'll hit the wall.

So go and find a calorie counter online (google it) and find out what your daily intake needs to be to maintain your current weight. Start by taking 500 from that (unless it's something like 4000+, in which case drop to 3000 or so) and follow these tips:

-Start your day with fibrous food. High fibre Muesli is perfect.
-Try to incorporate into your diet as much fruit and veg as possible, in solid form (i.e. not fruit juice, and not fried veg!)
-Cut out completely (this is a key point):
1. Butter!!!!! Just no.
2. Sugar
3. Any liquid drink aside from water and milk.
4. Food after 9/10pm. If you are going to have something after dinner, don't have a dessert, have a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter.

Also, fry in Sunflower/Nut oil, as Butter must be avoided at all costs, and Olive Oil becomes unhealthy at high temperatures.

Don't cut everything out though. Set yourself challenges. On a Monday morning, tell yourself that if you eat a perfect diet until Friday, then Saturday night you can get a pizza and have a couple of beers, do the same every week to keep your motivation going, one or two bad things a week is a good level to be at, just make sure when you do have something bad you downsize, like have a small pizza, and have fried chicken without the chips, gravy etc. It all helps.

Also, keeping your metabolism up is key, the following foods are great for it:

- Spicy foods
- Green tea
- Chillies
- Fresh Fruit, especially Raspberries and Mangoes.

Another GREAT, GREAT tip which should be the staple of any diet is to switch from White Pasta, White Rice and White Bread to Wholemeal varieties of Pasta and Bread, and Basmati Rice.

If you need any other advice then PM me, otherwise good luck.

[anarcho-communist4]

Some simple things you might wanna keep out of your diet that will help you lose weight. Stop drinking anything high in sugar, sodium. Energy drinks, sodas ect. Try switching to just plain water. I quit drinking soda about 2 months ago and have lost a bout 10 pounds, then again i did drink 7-8 glasses of soda a day. I weigh about 180pounds, and im 5,9. so im average now. I figured what i craved from sodas was, this might sound silly, but the carbonation, there are lots of different brands of Zero, carbonated flavored waters you can get for pretty cheap as well.

[xub3rn00dlex]

Do not, under any circumstance, skip meals. Your weight requires around 3700-4200 static calories to stay at maintenance level. What skipping meals will do is cause your body to panic, thinking it will not get the necessary nutrients it needs just to be able to maintain its daily function, and will cause you to go into hoard mode. Your body will literally start storing everything it can because of ''survival'' mode.

Munch on fruit, it does wonders to satiate hunger levels, and is usually low in calories, but do take care as in starch will turn into fat if it is not exercised. I would recommend dropping your daily caloric intake 200-300 calories for a start, and then gradually increasing that drop.

If you feel hungry, you have already waited too long before another meal, and I recommend 6 meals a day, with snacks in between ( yogurt really helps in between meals, nuts, veggies, etc. High in protein my friend! )

[RedAnarchist]

Some great advice in this thread, and I certainly will be adopting some of it. I'm five nine and around 210lbs/96kgs, so I certainly need to lose some weight myself. I don't drink any fizzy pop anymore ("Hi, my name is RedAnarchist and I'm a diet coke addict" is something you won't ever hear me say nowadays), and instead drink green tea and various other teas (I highly recommend green and some herbal teas that don't need milk like black tea often has added to it. Whilst water is good for you, tea is water + extra health benefits).

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Why would you want to drop 120lbs? Are you a guy or a girl?

I was about 215lbs at the start of the year (i'm 5ft10, a guy), i'm now about 185lbs and I wouldn't wanna lose a lot more!

[KC]

DISCLAIMER: My advice is coming from years of experience and learning from a ton of stupid mistakes so take it seriously because you don't want to have to go through all the bullshit I did before you finally get the picture.

Step 1: Calculate your daily caloric maintenance level. Google for calculators for this, it will take you 2 minutes.
Step 2: Subtract 500 kCals from that amount.
Step 3: Construct a diet totaling the amount from Step 2.
Step 4: Stick to the diet.

That's it. Everything else is secondary to the above steps, and work to support your maintaining those steps.

You don't even need to work out to lose weight, though obviously it's recommended because you'll lose more/faster due to the higher caloric deficit and also be healthier/fitter for it.


Basically, I am huge and want to lose at least 120 pounds. How can I lose this amount of weight in a reasonable time frame? I dont really have workout partners so playing team sports or boxing really wont work for me. I also only have 2 dumbbells and cant really spend much on any type of exercise equipment. Any nutritional tips would also be appreciated.

Congrats on making this commitment, I'm excited for you! Can you afford a gym membership? Basically, those dumbells are going to do absolutely nothing for you. When you're lifting, you need to progressively increase the weight to increase strength/muscle mass. If you can't get a gym membership (which I suggest you attempt at all costs, even if it means borrowing money from the rents or getting a second job or extra hours) then I'd suggest running and looking up bodyweight exercises. Nic knows more about that stuff than me, look through this forum he posted about bodyweight exercises somewhere on here.

If you can get access to a gym, I highly recommend you pick up Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore and stick to their program for a while. You will see a ton of progress and it's no-nonsense stuff.




Also there have been people who have lost weight and have really disgusting loose skin. Is there any way to prevent this?
Not really, though losing weight at a slower rate will help. I also recommend losing weight slower because the only way you are going to succeed at this is through lifestyle changes and lifestyle changes don't happen by comparing them to your overall goals.


What types of pre exercise energy gels, drinks or bars would you guys recommend? I have heard good things about Clif Bloks and thats about it. All of these are pointless, you don't need them necessarily.




The one problem I have with changing my eating habits is that I cant cook. Healthy pre prepared food is horribly expensive so I find it quite easy to buy a digiorno and call it a day. You are definitely right though and I should change my eating habits. Can you boil spaghetti noodles? Can you fry an egg? Can you make a sandwich? Because that's pretty much my entire diet right there. In other words, this is an excuse, you are attempting to justify your laziness. Either you make stuff that is healthy that you can already prepare, or you learn to cook. Cooking isn't hard, go buy a cook book and start cooking some of your favorite foods.

But anyways, the best defense against breaking diet is planning everything out beforehand so that during the week, when you are the least motivated to prep your food, you have minimal work to do. For example, I boil all my spaghetti noodles on Sunday, and bring all of my sandwich fixings to work, so that way if I'm lazy all I'm doing is popping some spaghetti in the microwave.

This technique is going to be your best friend. Prepare everything on Sunday for the entire week, diet wise. In general, set up your diet/workout routine so that it is very difficult for you to skip (another example, I work 30 minutes from home and switched to a gym that's closer to work and so now I go right from work to the gym instead of coming home between, as when I did that I'd get lazy and not want to leave my house).


Eat filling, high fibre food. Vegetables and whole grains. Avoid white bread, white rice and white pasta as much as possible. Not just about weight loss; it's much more nutritious. You'll feel fuller eating fewer calories and probably feel better too. It's also pretty easy - you don't have to eat very different food to do it. Obviously this isn't going to lose you 120 pounds, but it's a good start. It's more important to make easy changes in your life that you can stick to than it is to try to do really drastic things you can't keep doing and give up on a few weeks later.Regarding the above quote, and diet tips in general, [b]all you have to take into account in constructing your diet is the calorie intake (see above) and the macros (protein/fat/carbs). You can certainly track your vitamin/mineral intake if you want as well, but that's not nearly as important as the cals/macros (excepting any health conditions that you might have, of course).




1). Eat seven meals a day....every two hours. Every meal is not a meal like dinner. You can simply start by dividing what you eat now over those meals. Eat every two hours. This will increase and speed up your matabolism. If you do nothing else doing this will help you lose some weight in itself.


Seven is excessive, the general point here is to break up your intake throughout the day so that you're not hitting your system with a huge calorie/carb intake and spiking your insulin/blood sugar levels. So just eat regularly and schedule it around your day and you should be fine. I used to eat 6 meals a day but now eat 5, since my new job doesn't have an afternoon break.



3). Change when you eat what.
Eat carbohydrates mainly in the morning and afternoon....and as the day progresses eat less of them. Don't eat them after 7-8 pm.
Regarding weight loss, this is broscience. It doesn't matter when you eat anything as long as you're eating at a deficit.



4). The line goes: if you eat less than you burn you will lose fat. Find out what amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight...then eat less than that. The rule of thumb is every 3500 calories represents one pound of bodyweight...
Do NOT overdo this to be overzealous. It will backfire when your body decides to go into starvation mode.
Completely true. Stick to 500, if you want to increase the rate of fat loss increase your workouts/cardio.


8). Do not sleep longer than 7-8 hours. (unless you are sick) This also isn't necessarily true. Everyone has a different "standard time" of sleep based on your own internal clock. I sleep about 6 hours a night without problem.

[xub3rn00dlex]

Some great advice in this thread, and I certainly will be adopting some of it. I'm five nine and around 210lbs/96kgs, so I certainly need to lose some weight myself. I don't drink any fizzy pop anymore ("Hi, my name is RedAnarchist and I'm a diet coke addict" is something you won't ever hear me say nowadays), and instead drink green tea and various other teas (I highly recommend green and some herbal teas that don't need milk like black tea often has added to it. Whilst water is good for you, tea is water + extra health benefits).

As long as it's not liptons tea with all that extra sugar added, green tea is amazing :) You might also wish to consider a glass of wine a day, the anti-oxidants in it rival that of tea and it's great for your heart health.


Why would you want to drop 120lbs? Are you a guy or a girl?

I was about 215lbs at the start of the year (i'm 5ft10, a guy), i'm now about 185lbs and I wouldn't wanna lose a lot more!

Sex doesn't matter. The poster said he weighs 340lbs, and by asking how to lose 120lbs, or a third of his total weight I am assuming this isn't Ronnie Coleman we're talking about here. They may have personal reasons, health reasons, or a combination of both. Point is, they want to drop down to 220 lbs, and we should help them with facts instead of opinion.

I'm not trying to shit on you, so sorry if I come off that way. Your posts are very helpful prior! :)

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Oh, no, I thought it was Red Anarchist who was the OP and he/she said they were only 210lbs! Confused.

Yeah, i've found that the best diet is the diet of knowledge. That sounds really hackneyed but it's very true. It means that after 4-6 weeks on one specific 'diet' I can make myself another one without much fuss at all, whereas some peopl stick to these ridiculous diets and just say 'it works cos my leader says it does'.

[KC]

Yeah, i've found that the best diet is the diet of knowledge. That sounds really hackneyed but it's very true. It means that after 4-6 weeks on one specific 'diet' I can make myself another one without much fuss at all, whereas some peopl stick to these ridiculous diets and just say 'it works cos my leader says it does'.

I calc'd out a diet based on cals/macros, and now I just manipulate it as I see fit without doing any more math. I figure if I'm swapping stuff out for salads or fruit that it's not going to hurt, and if I don't see any progress I just cut something out. Best system.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Lot of room for error, though. I hate wasting weeks.

It's also about health. Could eat a 500kcal deficit and lose weight but you might not be eating foods that maintain muscle mass and keep you healthy. I didn't used to appreciate my health and was all about the aesthetics, but i'd rather sacrifice toned abs for better health any day now.

[xub3rn00dlex]

Lot of room for error, though. I hate wasting weeks.

It's also about health. Could eat a 500kcal deficit and lose weight but you might not be eating foods that maintain muscle mass and keep you healthy. I didn't used to appreciate my health and was all about the aesthetics, but i'd rather sacrifice toned abs for better health any day now.

You guys must be a lot older than us then! :D I'm running approximately a 4500kcal to 5000kcal diet every day right now, up 7 lbs in 16 days lol. I find that dieting is the easy part, the hard part is working out as you really have to be determined once the gains slow down, and constantly changing up your workout routine does tend to be a hassle.

[eyeheartlenin]

Hello, Justin: I went from 38 size pants to a 30 by doing two things:

We took care of a friend's Rottweiler for a year and half, and I walked Zeus every day, twice a day, for a total of one hour, and I benefited a lot from doing that. So, do you have a dog or a friend with a dog?

I also stopped riding buses and started walking everywhere I needed to go. I live in a small college town, so that was doable.

Oh, and I always drink skim milk or unsweetened iced tea (with some skim milk in it, to bind the deadly tannins), and I am a vegetarian.

I hope that is helpful, and I sincerely wish you success!

With regards,
ProvFT

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Nah, i'm only 20.

I've lost faith in the bodybuilders and what they say is their 'science'.

In reality anybody eating that much everyday will put on so much muscle and clog their arteries so much that it's only a matter of time before their vital organs give way.

The best thing to do is to stick between a healthy 1800-2500 or so per day range and stick at your best weight, adjusting your protein intake accordingly if you want to bulk up a bit. Lots of muscle just isn't healthy if it's only coming from supplements and weights. The only really healthy muscly guys you see get it naturally from doing a lot of exercise and eating well from a young age, as well as having high bone density.

[black magick hustla]

following KC's advice, there is no excuse to not have a gym pass and want to be fit unless you are unemployed or have a family. gyms are not that expensive, cmon if you can afford the internet and rent i am sure you can cut around 30 bucks a month.