veronikka said:

Ugh! Losing weight is getting frustrating for me! I have increased my calories by 500 and lowered them by 500 and I am still the same weight, how is that possible! I am still only doing cardio but I thought decreasing calorie intake by 500 meant 1 lb loss a week!

That's because the theory is wrong. You have to start with getting the nutrition right, not the calories. Try watching the movie Fat Head, which should be free on netflix. This is a great intro into why so much about what we've been taught about nutrition is wrong.

Wacth that first, then try this. Each time you eat, make sure 30 percent of your calories come from carbs, 30 percent from protien, 40 percent from fat. Since fat has 9 carbs per gram while protien and carbohydrates have 4 grams each, just match the protien grams to the carbohydrate grams and have the fat grams be about half of that. If you have to error one one because of the situation, let the fat go a bit higher to ensure protien and carbohydrates match.

For carbohydrates, be sure to subtract out fiber and sugar alchohal, which are included in teh total carbs count, but really shouldn't count since your body doesn't use them. It's important to keep the right ratios every time you eat. That's more important that total calories consumed (althought that is also a factor, it's not as important as we've been taught). Also, as much as possible try to stick to carbs that have a low glycemic index.

Get all of this right and you should start losing body fat without losing lean body mass because you've made your body chemestry work for you. If you instead eat like we've all been taught, your body fights you every step of the way. Low fat, high carbohydrate meals lock your fat into your fat cells and prevent your body from burning them for fuel.

I'll give a summary of what I've done this year.

Over the last 10 years or so I added close to a pound a month of weight. No one or even 5 or 10 lbs by themselves was too alarming, but the buildup over all of these years certainly was. In march I went for my quarterly doctor's appointment. At the appointment I tipped the scales at 290 and my doctor added two medicines to waht I already was taking. With the addition of those, each day I was taking 4 pills for high blood pressure, one for high tryglcerides, and one for diabetes.

I knew issues were creeping up on me, but with the pressures of raising my 6 kids and getting my business off the ground there didn't seem to be enough time to worry about diet, nutrition and exercise. After that appointment, it was pretty clear that if I didn't turn things around soon I'd be in real trouble. At the time I was facing turning 48 this summer and thus 50 in a couple of years.

What made things more depressing for me is that most of my life I've been in great shape. In my 30s I could play full court basketball for an hour and a half and follow it up with an hour of racketball. I had gone from that to getting winded walking a flight or two of stairs. So starting tht day I made it my mission to turn things around.

I knew things wouldn't change overnight as it took 10 years to get where I was. But I did set some goals. There are a lot of individual components to my goals, but the main goal I call simply 30 at 50. i.e. when I turn 50 I want to be as healthy as a healthy 30 year old. This means healthy body fat, no prescriotion medication, etc, etc. A sub goal of this is to run a 5k race when I turn 50.

In the 8 months since that appointment, I've lost 45 lbs. How did I do it? Did I run to the gym and start working out? No, in fact, I just started working out last week. Have I starved myself? No. I don't go hungry at all.

What I did was dramatically alter my diet and nutrition. I started out just making healther meals, including eating lots of salads and nearly eliminating all high starch foods. But I found I had to reductate myself on exactly what healthy meals are. Too many things I instinctively wanted to eat based on the years of diet advice fed to us by the "experts" is just wrong. A high grain diet is a recipie for dissaster.

Part of my education involved realizing I didn't have high blood pressure, diabetes and high tryglcerides as sepererate diseases, but rather that those were all side effects of a larger issue of metabolic syndrome. The medications I was on were just futile attempts to mask the symptoms. So metabolic syndrome is the disease I had to aggresssively attack head on.

Part of my education led to my settling on 30-30-40 ratiion of protien-carbohydrate-fat. This gets my blood chemestrty out of the cycle that causes metabolic syndrom. The thing about metabolic syndrom is you can get that even if you're not overweight. Is it working? At my checkup 6 months after I started, my doctor said I don't have diabetes anymore and took me off of that medicine. In fact, I've dropped form 6 pills a day to 2 pills a day.

The other part is nutrition. Certainly some of nutrition is the foods I eat. But another part involves vitamins and supplements. It's simply impossible to get all of the nutrients you need for our bodies to work optimally in the foods we eat. Since my goal is 30 at 50, that's the target for how I want my body to work - to function like a 30 year old in as my ways as I possibly can. Too may of the things we take for granted as aging issues are really nutrional issues. The right supplements can help our minds function better, our heart function better, our eyes function better, our immune system function better, our digestive system function better, make our bones stronger, make our joints more flexibile, etc, etc. There are also supplements that have been shown to prevent dibilitating diseases like cancer, altzhimers, etc.

One small examples of what I do for nutriton. I had noticed over the past decade that my vision had deteriorated, especially in low light conditions. I put off going to the eye doctor to get perscription glasses, but had reached the point where I couldn't put it off any longer. I couldn't read the menus in resturants without shining light on it with my phone, I couldn't even read the total on the credit card receipt. When I started working on better nutrition, I decided to give this vision supplement a shot.

http://www.life-enhancement.com/product.asp?SID=1&id=604

In less than a week, my vision dramatically improved. Not only can I read the total on the credit card receipts again, I can read the smallest text on the recipts, can read all restruant menus in low light, etc. I spent days just picking up things and reading things that had previosly been too blurry.

So now that I've lost 45 lbs, have the diet and nutrition pretty much figured out, I've started going to the gym to work out. My initial goal was to lose weight without losing lean body mass, which I believe I've done. My goal now is to add lean body weight while continueing to lose weight. I've never had a strong upper body (and haven't needed it as a programmer), I plan to change that. If all goes according to plan, when I turn 49 next summer I'll be in the 190-200 lb range.

Awesome Alandail!

Inspirational.

alandail said:

What I did was dramatically alter my diet and nutrition. I started out just making healther meals, including eating lots of salads and nearly eliminating all high starch foods. But I found I had to reductate myself on exactly what healthy meals are. Too many things I instinctively wanted to eat based on the years of diet advice fed to us by the "experts" is just wrong. A high grain diet is a recipie for dissaster.

Part of my education involved realizing I didn't have high blood pressure, diabetes and high tryglcerides as sepererate diseases, but rather that those were all side effects of a larger issue of metabolic syndrome. The medications I was on were just futile attempts to mask the symptoms. So metabolic syndrome is the disease I had to aggresssively attack head on.

Part of my education led to my settling on 30-30-40 ratio n of protien-carbohydrate-fat. This gets my blood chemestrty out of the cycle that causes metabolic syndrom. The thing about metabolic syndrom is you can get that even if you're not overweight. Is it working? At my checkup 6 months after I started, my doctor said I don't have diabetes anymore and took me off of that medicine. In fact, I've dropped form 6 pills a day to 2 pills a day.

You said many things that I found interesting!

I just turned 50 on August 29th 2011 and on that day I multiplied out how many days I had left until I turned 70. ( a little over 7000). I have noticed that the real deep decline in both mental health and physical health starts now or earlier. The quality of life I have at 70 is determined by these next 20 years. Not to mention that I want to enjoy these next 2 decades fully.

I gain much of my weight in my mid section and around my neck. I have high blood pressure, borderline diabetes and sleep apnea.

Anyway, I am curious about this Metabolic Syndrome and what kind of carbs and fats you eat. I have read great things about high fiber pastas and breads but then read someplace else that they contribute to belly fat. My belly fat not only looks bad, but it may kill me faster than a smoking habit would have.

I will google Metabolic Syndrome. In the meantime can you give me more info on what you eat or what you absolutely avoid except for an occasional treat.

metabolic syndrom: you eat high carb foods, it doesn't matter too much if it's a bowl of sugar, a baked patato, a bowl of rice, white bread, a multi-grain bun, etc. There are certainly some differences, but the key factors are how many grams of carbohydrates did you eat and how quickly will those carbohydrates be converted into sugar and absorbed into your blood stream.

The rate at how quickly this happens is called the glycemic index - it's a measure of how quicly your blood sugar will go up after eating 100 grams of a given food. When this number is high, what happens is your body goes into a cycle, you eat, your sugar rises, insulin gets released to clear the excess sugar from yhour blood stream. This insulin both causes you to convert those sugars into fat to store tehm and traps the fats already in your cells so they can't be used for energy. The larger problem is that your body is genetically engineerd to eat low glycemic index foods, so the insulin is longer lasting than the sugar, so it does it's job too well and drives your blood sugar lower than it needs to be, which makes you hungry sooner than you otherwise would be, which starts the cycle over again.

Repeat this enough time and you'll develop metabolic syndrom. Your body chemistry is out of wack, you become less efficient at processing the excess sugar, which makes the problem above worse.

How do youi prevent and/or revese the problem?

- Cut, but don't eliminate, the carbs. eliminating them all together causes ketosis, which also insn't a natural state. It's pretty much the reverse of what I just described.

- eliminate (or at least minimize) the high glycemic index foods and highly concentrated sources of carbs. This includes things like rice, potatoes, bread, etc.

- shoot for the ballpark of 40% of calories from fat, 30% from protien, 30% from carbs, and try to hit that every time you eat. This is enough carbs to prevent ketosis. The fat that most diets want you to eliminate both makes you feel full longer and slows the absorbtion of the carbs you do eat.

As for example foods. Herea an example meal - salad with oil/vinager dressing (I like Newman's Own brand), green peas or brocolli and grilled chicken makes a good meal. Make the salad as big as you want with low density veggies like lettuce, onions, green peppers, cucumber, etc. It's hard to get too many carbs this way.

Also, pay close attention to labels. One snack I eat for an occasional treat is the Jell-o Mousse temptations. Chocolate or dark chocolate. At first glance, this appears to have too many carbs, but most of the carbs are sugar alcohol instead of sugar. Sugar alcohol, like fiber, can be subtraced from total carbs because they aren't metabolized enough to matter.

[Edited 11/26/11 9:22am]

alandail said:

veronikka said:

Ugh! Losing weight is getting frustrating for me! I have increased my calories by 500 and lowered them by 500 and I am still the same weight, how is that possible! I am still only doing cardio but I thought decreasing calorie intake by 500 meant 1 lb loss a week!

That's because the theory is wrong. You have to start with getting the nutrition right, not the calories. Try watching the movie Fat Head, which should be free on netflix. This is a great intro into why so much about what we've been taught about nutrition is wrong.

Wacth that first, then try this. Each time you eat, make sure 30 percent of your calories come from carbs, 30 percent from protien, 40 percent from fat. Since fat has 9 carbs per gram while protien and carbohydrates have 4 grams each, just match the protien grams to the carbohydrate grams and have the fat grams be about half of that. If you have to error one one because of the situation, let the fat go a bit higher to ensure protien and carbohydrates match.

For carbohydrates, be sure to subtract out fiber and sugar alchohal, which are included in teh total carbs count, but really shouldn't count since your body doesn't use them. It's important to keep the right ratios every time you eat. That's more important that total calories consumed (althought that is also a factor, it's not as important as we've been taught). Also, as much as possible try to stick to carbs that have a low glycemic index.

Get all of this right and you should start losing body fat without losing lean body mass because you've made your body chemestry work for you. If you instead eat like we've all been taught, your body fights you every step of the way. Low fat, high carbohydrate meals lock your fat into your fat cells and prevent your body from burning them for fuel.

I do this already, I am at about 1400 calories a day, 125g carbs and 125gprotein and about 49g fats. I count it all, I must say though, I have a hard time hitting that protein goal, carbs are so easy but I find it hard to eat all that protein. This is why I try to only eat vegetables for my carbs now. I have never subtracted out fiber though, I count it all. I began eating this way in May of 2010 and lost 70lbs but as of February this year the weight has not come off at all. i know some weight training may help but I just have no idea what to do when it comes to weights

[Edited 11/26/11 9:40am]

btw Alandail, great info!

veronikka said:

alandail said:

That's because the theory is wrong. You have to start with getting the nutrition right, not the calories. Try watching the movie Fat Head, which should be free on netflix. This is a great intro into why so much about what we've been taught about nutrition is wrong.

Wacth that first, then try this. Each time you eat, make sure 30 percent of your calories come from carbs, 30 percent from protien, 40 percent from fat. Since fat has 9 carbs per gram while protien and carbohydrates have 4 grams each, just match the protien grams to the carbohydrate grams and have the fat grams be about half of that. If you have to error one one because of the situation, let the fat go a bit higher to ensure protien and carbohydrates match.

For carbohydrates, be sure to subtract out fiber and sugar alchohal, which are included in teh total carbs count, but really shouldn't count since your body doesn't use them. It's important to keep the right ratios every time you eat. That's more important that total calories consumed (althought that is also a factor, it's not as important as we've been taught). Also, as much as possible try to stick to carbs that have a low glycemic index.

Get all of this right and you should start losing body fat without losing lean body mass because you've made your body chemestry work for you. If you instead eat like we've all been taught, your body fights you every step of the way. Low fat, high carbohydrate meals lock your fat into your fat cells and prevent your body from burning them for fuel.

I do this already, I am at about 1400 calories a day, 125g carbs and 125gprotein and about 49g fats. I count it all, I must say though, I have a hard time hitting that protein goal, carbs are so easy but I find it hard to eat all that protein. This is why I try to only eat vegetables for my carbs now. I have never subtracted out fiber though, I count it all. I began eating this way in May of 2010 and lost 70lbs but as of February this year the weight has not come off at all. i know some weight training may help but I just have no idea what to do when it comes to weights

That hindered me for YEARS. Always wanted to do weight training but felt like a deer in the headlights when standing in a gym.

Find a workout buddy. Even if for just a few times. A friend of mine belongs to Planet Fitness and for a while there I used to go with him there (fortunately he has a Black membership that allows 1 companion a day). Once you get comfortable with form and what weights you should be using, it'll be a different story.

veronikka said:

alandail said:

That's because the theory is wrong. You have to start with getting the nutrition right, not the calories. Try watching the movie Fat Head, which should be free on netflix. This is a great intro into why so much about what we've been taught about nutrition is wrong.

Wacth that first, then try this. Each time you eat, make sure 30 percent of your calories come from carbs, 30 percent from protien, 40 percent from fat. Since fat has 9 carbs per gram while protien and carbohydrates have 4 grams each, just match the protien grams to the carbohydrate grams and have the fat grams be about half of that. If you have to error one one because of the situation, let the fat go a bit higher to ensure protien and carbohydrates match.

For carbohydrates, be sure to subtract out fiber and sugar alchohal, which are included in teh total carbs count, but really shouldn't count since your body doesn't use them. It's important to keep the right ratios every time you eat. That's more important that total calories consumed (althought that is also a factor, it's not as important as we've been taught). Also, as much as possible try to stick to carbs that have a low glycemic index.

Get all of this right and you should start losing body fat without losing lean body mass because you've made your body chemestry work for you. If you instead eat like we've all been taught, your body fights you every step of the way. Low fat, high carbohydrate meals lock your fat into your fat cells and prevent your body from burning them for fuel.

I do this already, I am at about 1400 calories a day, 125g carbs and 125gprotein and about 49g fats. I count it all, I must say though, I have a hard time hitting that protein goal, carbs are so easy but I find it hard to eat all that protein. This is why I try to only eat vegetables for my carbs now. I have never subtracted out fiber though, I count it all. I began eating this way in May of 2010 and lost 70lbs but as of February this year the weight has not come off at all. i know some weight training may help but I just have no idea what to do when it comes to weights

[Edited 11/26/11 9:40am]

sounds like you've done great. The only suggestion I have on the diet is to check the glycemic index of the carbs you do eat. If you have some that are high, that could hinder you. And sometimes it's suprising what are high.

You may also consider taking this

http://www.life-enhancement.com/product.asp?SID=1&id=645

3 pills per meal, thus 9 pills/day. It helps your body be more efficent at dealing with carbs.

As for the weights, does your gym have a program where they will show you how to use the machines and set up a plan? I just did that myself and they gave me a plan to follow. If not, maybe they have a trainer you can pay to walk you through it all once or twice.

I worked out Monday and again yesterday. Might go again tonight.

Gotta get rid of this "pregnant man" post-Thanksgiving gut.

Has anyone in here tried fasting? I've been doing it for a week, and somehow, the fat is just sliding right off of me. I fast every day until 4, I only drink water. While I'm fasting, I do strength training or cardio. It's been working

Back in the gym after taking off Thanksgiving Week. It's good to give the body a rest once in a while. Still was able to hit my max on my power lifts.

FASTING???

So what about this;

ScarletScandal said:

My body is weird. I only exercise a couple times a week, I eat what ever I want, but I remain damn near shredded, but I'm trying to get shreddeder.

alandail said:

veronikka said:

Ugh! Losing weight is getting frustrating for me! I have increased my calories by 500 and lowered them by 500 and I am still the same weight, how is that possible! I am still only doing cardio but I thought decreasing calorie intake by 500 meant 1 lb loss a week!

That's because the theory is wrong. You have to start with getting the nutrition right, not the calories. Try watching the movie Fat Head, which should be free on netflix. This is a great intro into why so much about what we've been taught about nutrition is wrong.

Just watched this (instead of studying for my finals). I was blown away. Really good stuff!

PurpleJedi said:

FASTING???

So what about this;

ScarletScandal said:

My body is weird. I only exercise a couple times a week, I eat what ever I want, but I remain damn near shredded, but I'm trying to get shreddeder.

What about it? I only drink water until 4, after which, I eat. Some time during the day when I'm fasting, I exercise. When I do eat, I eat whatever I want, but it doesn't affect my weight.

ScarletScandal said:

PurpleJedi said:

FASTING???

So what about this;

What about it? I only drink water until 4, after which, I eat. Some time during the day when I'm fasting, I exercise. When I do eat, I eat whatever I want, but it doesn't affect my weight.

For me it works better the other way. Stop eating after 4pm. The morning food has time to burn off before I sleep on it.

ScarletScandal said:

PurpleJedi said:

FASTING???

So what about this;

What about it? I only drink water until 4, after which, I eat. Some time during the day when I'm fasting, I exercise. When I do eat, I eat whatever I want, but it doesn't affect my weight.

When u say "shredded" u mean u have a six-pack & all that???

From what I've read in articles & such you should be storing fat, not the other way around, b/c you're not really "fasting" but rather putting the body through "starvation mode" until your dinnertime feast.

But I guess your metabolism probably has become acustomed to that schedule.

For the record, when u said "fasting" I envisioned a true fast where you go DAYS without food consumption. An old co-worker used to do that once a year. She would legitimately fast for a whole week (water only) and she told me that it cleaned out her system...after the body gets over the initial day or two it kicks into gear and begins to not only consume stored fat but to digest/process all the stuff stored in your intestines.

Not something you can do and function normally though, she would take a week off for vacation to do that. I've thought about doing that myself but haven't gathered the nerve (or time off).

When you exercise, do you actually lift weights & such? I can't imagine myself lifting anything while I haven't eaten all day.

PurpleJedi said:

ScarletScandal said:

What about it? I only drink water until 4, after which, I eat. Some time during the day when I'm fasting, I exercise. When I do eat, I eat whatever I want, but it doesn't affect my weight.

When u say "shredded" u mean u have a six-pack & all that???

From what I've read in articles & such you should be storing fat, not the other way around, b/c you're not really "fasting" but rather putting the body through "starvation mode" until your dinnertime feast.

But I guess your metabolism probably has become acustomed to that schedule.

For the record, when u said "fasting" I envisioned a true fast where you go DAYS without food consumption. An old co-worker used to do that once a year. She would legitimately fast for a whole week (water only) and she told me that it cleaned out her system...after the body gets over the initial day or two it kicks into gear and begins to not only consume stored fat but to digest/process all the stuff stored in your intestines.

Not something you can do and function normally though, she would take a week off for vacation to do that. I've thought about doing that myself but haven't gathered the nerve (or time off).

When you exercise, do you actually lift weights & such? I can't imagine myself lifting anything while I haven't eaten all day.

Lol everybody has a 6 pack

Thankfully, I'm not a really really big person, and I've never struggled with my weight. I've always been a slim guy, and I just need to get rid of some fat rather than lose a whole person. Because of that, I have a LOT of options for weight loss. Fasting has been working wonders for me. Rather than eating the 6 small meals a day which was time and money consuming, I just fast and exercise. During the day while I fast, I do exercises to build lean muscle. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories your body burns while exercising and while at rest, and that's my goal.

When losing weight, its more about what you eat than how often you work out.

Exercise is great and necessary but for effective weightloss you must not only concentrate on how long and how often you do it but your diet as well.

Want to exercise but not sweat and feel like ur heart will give out?

- try incline walking for 30 minutes every single day, drink plenty of water and eat high fiber foods - you want to poop out the excess waste sitting in the belly.

Want to build muscle quickly and slim down?

do a combination of cardio and weight lifting (tip, don't lift heavy weights but rather small ones and increase your repetitions). also eat veggies on top of veggies with protein. stay away from fruit, juice, cereal and soda because they have loads of sugar which is hard to burn off. if you don't burn the sugar the body converts it to fat.

want to maintain what you already have?

dancing, or walking or some moderate exercise a few times a week and not eating after 7pm will do the trick.

Now all this is easier said than done so it helps to start out slow, get a partner, and then increase your workout routine and hold back on the foods you like. Yep. the stuff we like is usually the stuff that impedes are weightloss goals.

happy fitness!

MajesticOne89 said:

alandail said:

That's because the theory is wrong. You have to start with getting the nutrition right, not the calories. Try watching the movie Fat Head, which should be free on netflix. This is a great intro into why so much about what we've been taught about nutrition is wrong.

Just watched this (instead of studying for my finals). I was blown away. Really good stuff!

it really is quite amazing just how wrong so much of what is taught to us about nutrition actually is as well as the incredibly stupid reasons we continue to be told this nonsense.

After 30 years of increasing diet releated health problems, the answer they come up with is that maybe they aren't teaching it well enough, it never even occurs to them that perhaps they should listen to the endless list of reasons why the things they teach us to do simply don't work.

ScarletScandal said:

My body is weird. I only exercise a couple times a week, I eat what ever I want, but I remain damn near shredded, but I'm trying to get shreddeder.

ScarletScandal said:

Lol everybody has a 6 pack

Yeah, and they're typically covered by a layer of twinkies and Budweiser.

alandail said:

MajesticOne89 said:

Just watched this (instead of studying for my finals). I was blown away. Really good stuff!

it really is quite amazing just how wrong so much of what is taught to us about nutrition actually is as well as the incredibly stupid reasons we continue to be told this nonsense.

After 30 years of increasing diet releated health problems, the answer they come up with is that maybe they aren't teaching it well enough, it never even occurs to them that perhaps they should listen to the endless list of reasons why the things they teach us to do simply don't work.

I bought that vision product you mentioned. My eyesight also decreases markedly in dim rooms and after dusk. The medicine gets here tomorrow. I can't wait to start taking it. I hope I have the same results you did!

RodeoSchro said:

alandail said:

it really is quite amazing just how wrong so much of what is taught to us about nutrition actually is as well as the incredibly stupid reasons we continue to be told this nonsense.

After 30 years of increasing diet releated health problems, the answer they come up with is that maybe they aren't teaching it well enough, it never even occurs to them that perhaps they should listen to the endless list of reasons why the things they teach us to do simply don't work.

I bought that vision product you mentioned. My eyesight also decreases markedly in dim rooms and after dusk. The medicine gets here tomorrow. I can't wait to start taking it. I hope I have the same results you did!

Keep us posted!

RodeoSchro said:

alandail said:

it really is quite amazing just how wrong so much of what is taught to us about nutrition actually is as well as the incredibly stupid reasons we continue to be told this nonsense.

After 30 years of increasing diet releated health problems, the answer they come up with is that maybe they aren't teaching it well enough, it never even occurs to them that perhaps they should listen to the endless list of reasons why the things they teach us to do simply don't work.

I bought that vision product you mentioned. My eyesight also decreases markedly in dim rooms and after dusk. The medicine gets here tomorrow. I can't wait to start taking it. I hope I have the same results you did!

have you noticed any improvements yet?

IDontBelieveYouHeardMe said:

retina said:

I hate gyms. Not because of the painful exercise you do there but because of all the steroid-pumped idiots hanging around, the stench of sweat, the waiting around to use a certain machine, etc. Luckily when I moved into a new apartment two years ago, it turned out that the building has a small gym and there's almost never anybody there! I'm not even exaggerating; I've been going there twice a week for a few months now and there might have been somebody there once or twice during that whole time. Other than that, I'm completely alone, can play my own music etc. It's as if I was some kind of billionaire with a private gym.

So anyway, I am starting to get results, although not as fast as I used to a few years ago. I have to work a lot harder these days and the most difficult thing is to lose belly fat. My body is way happier adding muscle than burning fat (despite doing 80% cardio and 20% weights) so if I don't watch out I'll end up with a beer belly shaped like a six-pack, lol.

You're probably struggling to lose fat because you've signed up to some of the main gym myths/mistakes: 1. You should be doing 80% weights and 20% cardio, not the other way round. In fact, you could even drop the cardio altogether and incorporate your weights into a circuit routine with little rest between sets. Ever noticed that the best physiques in the gym are in the weights room and that the cardio machines are always occupied by flabby people? 2. Don't do steady state cardio as it's pretty useless, it's boring and certain forms are bad for your joints and bones. If you want to lose fat, do a form of interval training. 3. It's what goes in your mouth that determines whether or not you're lean and defined. You can exercise 'til the cows come home, but if your diet is poor, you have an excess of calories (especially if they are from carbs) then you'll never get cut. 4. Use free weights and not machines. Compound, natural movements activate more muscle and trigger growth, testosterone production and calorie burning than artificial, isolated movements.

Damn thanks for your advice. Makes a whole lot of sense.

IDontBelieveYouHeardMe said:

retina said:

Again, thank you very much for the valuable advice!

I think I'll leave my eating habits the way they are for now, but if I still can't get any results after doing the other adjustments I'll consider - ugh! - salad and those gross-looking protein shakes too.

HIIT looks interesting and you're totally right that I should make good use of the fact that I have the whole gym to myself, and do the circuit.

I am indeed over 30 (35 in fact) so I know that I should probably do more exercise than twice a week but for now that's all the time I can spare. If it was just the one hour of actual exercise each time it would probably work, but the changing of clothes, the walk to the gym, the warming-up, the shower afterwards...it eventually adds up to quite a lot of time.

I won't rest until the stomach is gone though!

Mmmmmm. I fear that unless you cut out the fried taters you'll not make much progress on your gut! Think about it - a portion of fries might be 500 calories and so if you eat em every day, you'd need to jog for 3.5 hours during each of your twice weekly workouts in order to burn them off. Of course, that's a crude calculation which presumes that the fries are, in effect, all "excess". However, the point is that doing cardio to undo poor dietary control is unlikely to succeed unless you run like Forrest Gump. Putting it another way - if you delete the fries from your diet, you'd be 500 cals in deficit per day = 3500 per week = 1lb of fat lost per week. Btw, not all protein shakes and bars are gross. Many protein drinks are indeed horrible and taste like medicine, but some brands taste just like regular milkshakes and some of the protein bars are really good too, albeit expensive. For example, the ones I eat taste very similar to a Snickers bar. It's just a case of asking around, browsing the fitness forums and a little bit of trial and error. [Edited 11/24/11 14:14pm]

This is true. I drink the GNC Total Lean protein shakes and they taste just like milkshakes (well the Vanilla Bean and Blueberry Cream flavors do). Their protein bars aren't bad either but are pretty expensive.

I was @ gym last night 'til 1:00am...

...got home wired so didn't get to bed 'til 2:00am.

I'm so not ready for work this morning.

PurpleJedi said:

I was @ gym last night 'til 1:00am...

...got home wired so didn't get to bed 'til 2:00am.

I'm so not ready for work this morning.